Deadpool & Wolverine is out now in theaters, and it’s been a massive success. The early reviews, public reactions, and opening weekend box office numbers prove that Marvel has returned to form with the long-awaited Deadpool & Wolverine.
It’s the best Multiverse Saga movie so far, and I can’t wait to see what comes next. I don’t just mean these two characters, but the other MCU movies that will get us closer to the Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars we’re all dying to see.
Deadpool & Wolverine is a great movie that works on its own. You don’t have to watch any Fox Marvel universe movies or the MCU. But it’ll be even more exciting if you’re already familiar with the events in all these movies. And if you watch Deadpool & Wolverine through that multiverse lens, you’ll quickly realize the film has a few big Avengers and X-Men plot holes that need to be explained.
Before I tell you what’s wrong with the Deadpool & Wolverine plot, be aware that big spoilers follow below.
The Logan chronology
Let’s start from the top; let’s desecrate the Logan legacy – cue in Deadpool & Wolverine’s brilliant Bye Bye Bye choreography.
Deadpool 3 teaches us that certain universes have Anchor Beings. Without them alive, the universes wither and die, even if it takes thousands of years. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) lives in the same reality where Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) died and is adamant that Logan isn’t dead.
He uses a TVA “Kindle Phone” to travel in time to Logan’s grave to prove he’s alive in the grave. Turns out he’s dead.
This is the first big Deadpool & Wolverine plot hole. Logan happens in a more dystopian future. The action is set in 2029, therefore, in the future of Deadpool. Meanwhile, Deadpool & Wolverine is set in 2024, some six years after the events in Deadpool 2 (and Infinity War).
Therefore, Wade had to go to the future of his reality to prove that Logan was alive. That’s not a problem, considering that Deadpool hasn’t changed that future by trying to revive Logan. It wouldn’t have worked either way.
However, the end of Deadpool & Wolverine gives us an unusual situation. The new Wolverine stays on Earth-10005, where the current Wolverine is yet to die. That’s right, Earth-10005 has two Wolverines now, and the TVA let it happen. Marvel will need to fix this plot hole somehow.
The ages of X-Men
We need to talk about another X-Men plot hole in Deadpool & Wolverine. We got a cameo from the young X-Men in Deadpool 2. That includes the young version of Professor X, played by James McAvoy. That happened in Earth-10005’s 2018. However, 11 years later, a 97-year-old Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) dies. McAvoy’s Xavier couldn’t have been 88 back in 2018.
This is a plot hole I’m willing to ignore, given the problems of moving the Deadpool character from the Fox universe to the MCU. But there is a simple fix. We might think the Deadpool in Deadpool 3 is the same as the Deadpool 2.
In reality, it might be a copy of that Wade. However, on Earth-10005, the X-Men would be different ages than what we saw in Deadpool 2. After all, this is the multiverse, and Deadpool has been responsible for so many bad things that the TVA has already pruned hundreds of Deadpools.
Why the Earth-616 Avengers?
I explained earlier how important that Avengers scene early in Deadpool & Wolverine is. It’s the way we get a link between Deadpool’s reality and Earth-616. It also makes us wonder how Infinity War and Endgame would have played out with the Avengers team having access to Deadpool and his time travel device.
But why did Wade choose this universe? Unexplained, this feels like a plot hole. A simple fix would be Wade getting lost. Maybe his universe has Avengers, too, and he messed up his time travel gadget that Cable (Josh Brolin) introduced in Deadpool 2. Maybe he searched for a reality where Avengers exist.
Whatever the case, all of this implies that Deadpool would be aware of different realities and the multiverse well before the TVA grabs him.
Where is Loki?
As we learn early in Deadpool & Wolverine, the TVA that grabs Deadpool is the new TVA, the organization that Loki (Tom Hiddleston) reformed in Loki season 2. Well, Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) is essentially a traitor. He wants the old ways back, hence his plan to quickly destroy a reality that lacks Anchor Beings.
The problem with his actions, especially once Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) comes out of the Void to take over his reality-destroying machine, is that they don’t trigger a more robust action from the TVA and Loki himself. This is another potential Deadpool & Wolverine plot hole.
Sure, B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) gets the warning and comes to save the day, but after Deadpool and Wolverine save the day.
The TVA can travel in time and deal with these issues differently. Nova is a tremendous threat to the multiverse, one that Loki should be on the lookout for. Yes, he’s holding the multiverse in his arms, but he can also be everywhere at any time.
Since I’m talking about the TVA, I’ll also point out the obvious issues. The TVA didn’t prune this Deadpool version, as his time travel abuse might have happened after Kang died in Loki season 1. Yes, that was 2018 in the Earth-10005 reality. But it could have happened just as Kang died.
Some of the events in Endgame are also contemporaneous with Kang’s death. That’s why a different Thanos travels to Earth or why Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) retires to a different reality.
Time travel tribulations
Deadpool 2 introduces time travel that shouldn’t work in the MCU. That’s a big plot hole, some might think. Well, it’s not. I’ve explained how simple it is to dismiss this concern.
Cable’s instrument might be similar to what Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) developed in Endgame. In this case, Cable and Deadpool are simply creating alternate realities with each change of the past. Earth-10005 is just one of them. Hence, Deadpool never traveled back in time to fix his present. He just created himself a reality where Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) doesn’t die.
Or maybe Cable’s tech is a variation of the Time Stone. It can unwind time similarly. We can easily accept either version without worrying about Endgame time travel rules. It’s clear, however, that you can’t change the past in the MCU. The TVA makes that clear through B-15 at the end of Deadpool & Wolverine. That rule will continue to dominate the Multiverse Saga.
What I find less credible are some of Wade’s actions related to time travel. For example, he destroyed Cable’s device rather than keeping it at hand in case he needed it to change the past. Again, he thought he was changing the past.
But more troubling is to me the fact that Deadpool gave up joining the Avengers after his one failed interview with Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau). This connects to the previous Deadpool & Wolverine plot hole: Deadpool’s choice of Earth-616.
There is a very easy fix here, one that Marvel could always sneak in other movies where Deadpool appears next. We could get some sort of flashback explaining that the Avengers refused Deadpool hundreds of times. Say at least 616. Imagine a Groundhog Day event where Deadpool tries to manipulate Happy to accept him and fails each time despite adapting to the previous scenario.
Such a development would also explain why Wade finally decides to destroy Cable’s gadget, but also his depression that ultimately forced Vanessa to break up with him.
Anchor Beings
I get why Deadpool 3 needs Anchor Beings, but the concept is a big plot hole for the entire MCU, not just Deadpool & Wolverine.
I already explained that Anchors might help Marvel bring back Iron Man to the Earth-616 reality. Now that Avengers: Doomsday is official, I think that Doctor Doom variant is Tony Stark, not Victor von Doom. Either that or Doctor Doom will force the Avengers to seek another Iron Man from the multiverse.
The bigger problem with Anchor Beings is that their death leads to the destruction of a reality. But Anchor Beings can’t live forever. Also, what happens with a reality whose Anchor wasn’t born with.
More importantly, the events in Deadpool & Wolverine allowed Wade and Logan to change the future of that reality. The universe will no longer die as it was supposed to.
The TVA is surprised, but it lets it happen. This TVA no longer destroys realities that don’t conform to a script. But the entire thing sets a big precedent that contradicts Endgame: You can change the future of a reality without spawning a different branch.
