Avengers: Endgame Could Have Been Avoided If Tony Stark Used Deadpool’s Time Travel Device

Fans are beginning to realize that Deadpool’s time-travel antics in Deadpool 2 create a significant problem for Deadpool & Wolverine and Avengers: Endgame. Could The Snap and Tony Stark’s death have been avoided if Deadpool had joined the Avengers?

Time Travelling In The MCU

Time travelling is a messy business, especially for writers. Once you introduce time-bending mechanics into your story, you better establish meticulously specific rules if you hope to retain some continuity. Or just ignore them, like J.K. Rowling did after Prisoner of Azkaban.

When a character can just go back in time to resurrect a loved one or avert a tragedy from happening, the emotional impact of a story suffers. However, talented storytellers always write around the limitations of time-travelling shenanigans, much like Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely did when they came up with the MCU’s first time machine in Avengers Endgame. It’s a shame Deadpool 2 beat them by a year.

Time-Skipping Merc With A Mouth

Deadpool 2 ends with The Merc with a Mouth and Cable finally solving their issues after Deadpool saved Cable’s family by redeeming Russell in the past before he could become the murderous Firefist.

Much like in the comics, Cable comes from a dystopian future. As much as Deadpool loves breaking the fourth wall, live-action Marvel films steered clear from any time-travelling nonsense for as long as they could. Even in Days of Future Past, there’s never any “time machine” mentioned. That changed in Deadpool 2, where Cable uses a time-travelling device – which eventually ends up in Deadpool’s hands.

Though Deadpool uses the time-travelling device with good intentions – like avoiding Vanessa’s death – he also uses it for some less-than-noble ends, like killing Ryan Reynolds before he could star in Green Lantern. Still, did Deadpool & Wolverine just retroactively establish Deadpool beat some of the most brilliant minds in the MCU when it comes to mastering time-travelling?

Deadpool Across Time (And Space)

One of the most intentionally confusing scenes in Deadpool & Wolverine happens right at the beginning, as Wade Wilson tries to join the Avengers. There’s been some fan debate regarding where in the Multiverse this interview takes place. The Wade we know and love comes from Earth-10005, but he wants to join the Earth-616 Avengers?

As confusing as that might seem, Cable’s time device also seems to allow some degree of interdimensional hopping, as in Deadpool 2 Wade used the machine to kill his X-Men Origins Wolverine counterpart. That would explain how he made it into Happy Hogan’s office – in 2018. That means Wade tried to join the Avengers five years before Endgame.

To make matters worse, Deadpool & Wolverine tells us Wade visited the Avengers Compound in March of 2018, which is around two months before the Snap. Maybe if he had arrived a couple of months later, his time machine might have been instrumental in saving half of the life on Earth-616.

Wade Wilson vs Tony Stark

So, did Deadpool beat Tony Stark in the time machine race in the MCU? Chronologically, maybe? The scene between Happy and Wade, as pivotal to the plot as it might be for Deadpool & Wolverine, is mostly just a joke. In the MCU’s continuity, Wade was never on Earth-616 before Endgame.

Even then, Cable’s time-traveling device is fundamentally different from Stark’s time machine. While the Avengers use the power of the Quantum Realm to travel to the past, Cable’s device works thanks to plot convenience. In the words of the Merc with a Mouth himself, “That’s just lazy writing.“

With Deadpool destroying Cable’s time-travelling device off-screen after being rejected by the Avengers and Stark’s time machine essentially MIA after Endgame, it’s safe to say the MCU might be safe from time-travelling shenanigans for a while. At least until we finally find out how Robert Downey Jr. can become Doctor Doom after playing one of the most iconic heroes in the franchise.

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Could Avengers: Endgame have been avoided if Tony Stark used Deadpool’s time travel device?