Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine’s plot.
Deadpool & Wolverine’s story begins six years after Wade Wilson retires from working as the masked mercenary Deadpool. He retired because he lacked purpose, having been rejected in his efforts to join the Avengers by Jon Favreau’s Happy Hogan.
To meet Hogan in the cameo-filled superhero epic, Deadpool had to find his way to Earth-616, the “Sacred Timeline,” which is, in simpler terms, the primary continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s movies. The Hogan Deadpool chatted with in his Avengers interview was the same Hogan audiences were introduced to in 2008’s Iron Man.
But how did Deadpool get from his timeline, Earth-10005, to Earth-616, and does it even make sense?
How did Wade Wilson get to Earth-616 in Deadpool & Wolverine?
At the end of 2018’s Deadpool 2, the eponymous Merc with a Mouth uses Cable’s wrist-mounted time-traveling device to correct a few wrongs, including killing the alternate version of himself from 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine and killing Ryan Reynolds to prevent him from starring in 2011’s Green Lantern.
It appears the device also grants users the ability to jump between universes, which is how Deadpool ventured to Earth-616 and visited the Avengers’ headquarters to speak to Hogan about joining Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
But that raises more questions than answers. Where did the watch’s ability to traverse the multiverse come from? Why didn’t Deadpool use it to attempt to join Avengers teams in other universes before giving up? And why did he need to steal a TVA TemPad to find alternate versions of Wolverine? If he had a multiverse-traversing device on his wrist, he could’ve used it to do the same thing.
The best thing to do is overlook all that and just enjoy the movie for the hilarious romp it is. In summary, Deadpool used Cable’s time-traveling device to get to Earth-616 — even if it doesn’t make a lick of sense (maybe Deadpool 4 will clarify the whole thing).