Deadpool & Wolverine was a historic success with its nearly $445 million opening weekend take at the global box office. The film broke several records along the way and should easily top $1 billion. I’d have expected that to happen regardless of how good the film turned out to be. But Deadpool 3 is so good that it deserves to reach that level. It’ll be interesting to see if it can reach $2 billion, a figure normally reserved for Avengers movies.
Speaking of Avengers movies, Deadpool & Wolverine does connect the MCU to the Fox universe of Marvel movies, just as expected. It is a multiverse movie meant to help Marvel transplant Deadpool to the MCU, where he can eventually meet the Avengers. The same goes for Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) — at least the variant introduced in the movie.
These aren’t spoilers. We expected all of that to be the case well before Deadpool & Wolverine even hit theaters. But big spoilers will follow below, as I go through the confusing but brilliant Avengers easter egg in Deadpool & Wolverine.
Deadpool hasn’t moved to Earth-616
Before watching Deadpool & Wolverine, I expected Deadpool to permanently relocate to Earth-616 by the end of the movie. Either willingly or unwillingly, he’d arrive in the main MCU reality and get his chance to join (or annoy) the Avengers. The other option was for Deadpool to get some sort of permanent job with the TVA that would give him access to Earth-616 and the Avengers. Still, he’d need to interact with the main universe somehow.
What ultimately happens is that Deadpool stays in his reality, Earth-10005, by the end of the movie. He keeps the new Wolverine with him. However, as the hilarious post-credits scene in Deadpool 3 shows us, Deadpool still has a way into the TVA. He can travel the multiverse, something he did early in the movie while searching for a new Logan.
Time travel retconned?
Deadpool 2 introduced a time travel device that Deadpool used to alter his past so his beloved Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) survives the attack on their home. Deadpool also abused the gadget to fix some issues of the past. When the TVA grabs him, Deadpool explains that he destroyed the device that Cable (Josh Brolin) brought from the future.
But that was Fox’s way to do time travel. After Endgame, we know that time travel isn’t exactly possible. Or, better said, you can’t change the past. You can travel back in time, but modifying the events would only create additional realities.
Since Deadpool messed with events in the past, we can assume he created a bunch of parallel realities, per Marvel’s MCU time travel rules. But he wasn’t necessarily aware of all that.
On the other hand, the TVA doesn’t care about all the abuse Deadpool’s timeline endured. We also have to take into account the possibility that Cable’s device does let you change the events of the past to some degree. Maybe it works similarly to how Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) can alter the flow of time.
What matters in all of this is that Deadpool somehow ended up in the Earth-616 reality, applying for a job with the Avengers.
The Infinity War and Endgame connection
It’s unclear why Deadpool went to Earth-616 after he got the time travel (reality hopping) device. Maybe he was seeking a different reality where Avengers exist.
Maybe he got confused, thinking he was visiting his reality’s Avengers. The group of heroes exists in realities where X-Men reside. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness makes that clear with the introduction of Earth-838. Also, the new Wolverine is aware of Avengers.
What’s important to note is the moment Deadpool met Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau), thinking he would apply for a job with the man himself, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). It happened on March 14th, 2018. How and why is that date important?
Well, it turns out that Deadpool applied to be an Avenger on Earth-616 a couple of months before the events in Infinity War. Also important is that, at the time, he was still using a functional time travel device. As for the Avengers, they were still split into two groups after the events in Captain America: Civil War.
Imagine how the Battle of Wakanda would have played out with Deadpool helping the Avengers. In addition to his regeneration capabilities, fighting skills, and mouth, he would have had Cable’s gadget on hand to help the Avengers travel through time.
We wouldn’t have had to wait five years for Tony Stark to develop a similar device, which is likely an early version of Cable’s gadget. Maybe Iron Man wouldn’t have died at all.
Then again, none of this could have happened. He Who Remains would not have allowed it. The events on Earth-616 were predestined to happen the way they did. Come to think of it, Deadpool might never meet “the man,” as Iron Man is now dead. However, I’m sure he’ll run into a certain Doctor Doom (still RDJ) soon.
The larger MCU timeline
Still, this first contact between the Avengers and Deadpool has been made on Earth-616. After the events in Deadpool & Wolverine, they have to meet again. Deadpool must want to learn why Thor (Chris Hemsworth) was crying.
I’ll also point out that the events in Deadpool & Wolverine happen six years after the meeting between Deadpool and Happy. Therefore, the action takes place in 2024 on Earth-10005, a year after Earth-616’s events in Endgame.
I’ll point out that Deadpool’s reality never experienced Thanos. More importantly, chronology between realities is irrelevant in the multiverse. For an outside observer, such as a member of the TVA, everything in the multiverse happens simultaneously.
What’s important here is that the events in Deadpool 3 happened a few years before the present time in Earth-616. We’re currently somewhere in 2026 on Earth-616.
