Deadpool & Wolverine: Kevin Feige Addresses MCU Anchor Being Theory (Exclusive)

Is Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man the MCU's anchor being?

By Cameron Bonomolo

Warning: This article contains Deadpool & Wolverine spoilers. "This is how a reality dies," Mr. Paradox (Matthew Macfadyen) tells Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) when he's arrested by the Time Variance Authority for illegally using Cable's time travel device to travel through space and time (as seen in 2018's Deadpool 2). A self-proclaimed "mercy killer" for the multiverse organization that no longer prunes dying timelines after the events of Loki season 2, Paradox informs Deadpool that his world — Earth-10005, and the X-Men movie timeline along with it — is gradually decaying after losing its "anchor being": Logan, a.k.a. the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman).

Paradox goes on to explain that an anchor being "is an entity of such vital importance that when they die, their whole world slowly withers out of existence." In this case, the X-Men universe's anchor being was the Wolverine who died in 2017's Logan in "an act of self-sacrifice so epic that it sent shivers down the timeline." 

As a result, the TVA has tasked Paradox with overseeing the end of Earth-10005 — a slow death that will happen over thousands of years. Rather than watch Deadpool's defunct universe die slowly of natural causes, Paradox deploys the Time Ripper: a MacGuffin allowing Paradox to destroy the space-time matrix of Deadpool's world and accelerate its inevitable demise in an act of merciful efficiency.

To prevent his home world's premature ejection from existence, Deadpool tracks down a Wolverine variant (a blue-and-yellow-clad Jackman) to stabilize the X-Men timeline with a new anchor being. Deadpool even crosses over into the Sacred Timeline (the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Earth-616) which, according to TVA rules, would have its own anchor being whose very existence is tethered to all reality.

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Might that be Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man? After all, in a meta, fourth wall-breaking sense, the late Avenger was the "anchor" of the MCU in the same way Jackman's Wolverine anchored the Fox-made X-Men movies. 

"The fact that you even asked that makes me happy, and that the term has ignited your imagination to even ask that question," Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told ComicBook in an interview conducted before it was announced that Downey will play Victor Von Doom in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

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It's a villainous turn that was seemingly hinted at in Deadpool & Wolverine. In a sequence set within the Void — what Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) of the Fantastic Four called a "metaphysical junkyard" where TVA-pruned castoffs exist in purgatory — an Easter egg was spotted, suggesting the existence of an alt-universe evil Iron Man.

Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday is set for May 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars in May 2027. Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters.

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