Deadpool & Wolverine: What happened to Cable’s time machine?

At the end of Deadpool 2, Wade Wilson changed the past using Cable’s time machine… but it’s nowhere to be seen in Deadpool & Wolverine.

In the 2018 sequel, Deadpool teamed up with Cable, a time-traveling mercenary hellbent on killing Russell, a young mutant who’ll kill his family in the future.

Thankfully, it didn’t work out that way. Russell didn’t become a mass murderer, but Cable used his device’s final charge to go back in time and save Deadpool. He presumed it was no longer usable… but Negasonic Teenage Warhead fixed it, allowing Wade to stop Vanessa’s death, kill Weapon XI in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and shoot Ryan Reynolds in the head before filming Green Lantern.

Going into Deadpool & Wolverine, many presumed the involvement of the Time Variance Authority would stem from Cable’s time travel device – but that’s not quite the case. Spoilers to follow!

Deadpool destroyed Cable’s time machine

Cable’s time travel device isn’t a big part of Deadpool & Wolverine. According to Wade, he destroyed it soon after the events of Deadpool 2.

20th Century Studios

After his *NSYNC dance number, the movie flashes back to 2018 when Wade visited Avengers HQ in Earth-616. He comes from Earth-10005, so he wouldn’t have been able to get there without the device.

Happy Hogan turns him down, so Deadpool returns to the X-Men timeline. He doesn’t reveal exactly when it was destroyed, but it’s safe to assume it was straight after Earth’s mightiest heroes rejected him.

Later, he’s ripped out of his reality by the TVA. When he meets Mr Paradox, he presumes Cable’s machine put him on the TVA’s radar. He’s wrong, but they did notice his “abuse” of the timelines.

However, it doesn’t matter, because Wade has a TemPad by the end of Deadpool & Wolverine. He can still go wherever, whenever, so he’ll show up again in the MCU at some point.

Why isn’t Cable in Deadpool & Wolverine?

Deadpool jokes that he wasn’t received well in test screenings, but it’s unclear exactly why Josh Brolin’s Cable didn’t return in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Little has been said about his absence, but given how many characters appear in Deadpool & Wolverine, he was likely cut from the threequel to avoid it becoming too overcrowded.

There’s certainly no bad blood from Brolin’s side, either. In an interview with The Playlist, he said: “[Marvel] is a more complex labyrinth than Outer Range will ever be, my friend.

“And I will never know where that went or what that is or what I’m involved with or what I’m not involved with – the MCU being involved now. Cable was a lot of fun. I really liked doing that role. That was a lot of fun.”

After you read our Deadpool & Wolverine review, make sure you check out our breakdown of every Deadpool & Wolverine Easter egg and our guides to all of the Wolverine variants and Deadpool variants.