What is an Anchor Being in ‘Deadpool & Wolverine?’

The time has come for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to bow down to Deadpool & Wolverine, with the long-awaited mutant extravaganza having finally hit theaters.

That is, if “bowing down” refers to welcoming a team-up film that both unthinkably surpasses everything we expect a Marvel movie to be these days, and doubles down on an overwhelming number of the MCU’s greatest sins while creating brand new ones.

But anyway, the film also created some brand new quantum jargon for us to plug into our Multiverse Saga codex, which currently contains such terms as “variant,” “prune,” and “Sacred Timeline.” Thanks to Deadpool & Wolverine, “anchor beings” are now in the equation.

What is an anchor being?

Simply put, an anchor being is someone who stabilizes their respective timeline simply by being in it. When an anchor being dies, the universe begins to naturally die. In essence, each universe has a heartbeat, and that heartbeat is an anchor being.

The anchor being of Deadpool’s home timeline, Earth-10005, was Wolverine, who died during the events of 2017’s Logan. As a result, Earth-10005 begins to die at a pace that would erase it in a couple thousand years. Mr. Paradox, however, is impatient, and wishes to destroy it using a device known as the “Time Ripper.”

It’s unclear who the anchor being of Earth-199999 (or, as Kevin Feige insists on calling it, Earth-616) is, but it would certainly be wise of Marvel to figure that out sooner rather than later, if they haven’t already. It’s not terribly difficult, for instance, to envision an Avengers 5 plotline that involves Earth’s heroes trying to defend their anchor being from getting assassinated, only to fail, and then come from behind for an ultimate victory in Avengers: Secret Wars. Whoever it is, here’s hoping Marvel makes the most of their narrative mileage.

Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in cinemas.