In 2018, after Wade Wilson uses Cable‘s time-travel device to prevent the death of his girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle, he travels from his universe, Earth-10005, to Earth-616 / the “Sacred Timeline“,hoping to join the Avengers and give his life added meaning. He is rejected by Happy Hogan and returns to his own universe. Six years later, Wade has broken up with Vanessa and retired from being the masked mercenary Deadpool. He works as a used-car salesman with his friend Peter Wisdom.

During Wade’s birthday party, the Time Variance Authority (TVA) captures him and brings him to Mr. Paradox, who explains that they are an organization outside of time that monitors the Sacred Timeline and wider multiverse. Paradox reveals that Wade’s timeline is deteriorating as a result of the death of its stabilizing “anchor being”, Logan / Wolverine.Paradox plans to use a device called a “Time Ripper” to speed up this process rather than spend thousands of years waiting for the timeline to die naturally. He offers to spare Wade by sending him to the Sacred Timeline where he is expected to play an important role in future events. Wade steals Paradox’s TemPad and uses it to travel to Logan’s grave, hoping to resurrect him and save their timeline. When this fails, Wade uses the TemPad to travel the multiverse in search of an alternate universe “variant” of Logan that can replace his own.

Wade returns to the TVA with a variant of Logan but is told by Paradox that an anchor being cannot be replaced, least of all by this variant who is considered to be the worst Wolverine in the multiverse. When Wade deduces that Paradox is acting without the knowledge of his superiors, Paradox sends Wade and Logan to the Void where all things are consumed by the creature Alioth. Logan agrees to work with Wade when he claims that the TVA can change his timeline. Wade and Logan are captured with Johnny Storm and taken to Cassandra Nova, the powerful and sadistic twin sister of X-Men leader Charles Xavier. Cassandra, who made a deal with the TVA to oversee the Void, kills Johnny and leaves Wade and Logan to be consumed by Alioth. The pair manage to escape.