Marvel has not officially revealed the anchor being of Earth-616, the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tony Stark is probably the strongest answer for who filled that role during the Infinity Saga. Doctor Strange, Wanda Maximoff and Loki all have legitimate arguments of their own. But after Spider-Man: Brand New Day, I think Peter Parker may have the strongest case for who could become the MCU’s next anchor.

And that word — become — is where this gets interesting.

Because I do not think the most useful question is simply, “Which MCU character is important enough to be the anchor being?” Deadpool & Wolverine gives us a much stranger possibility. Logan’s importance cannot simply be replaced by grabbing another Wolverine with the same face and powers. Yet Wade’s universe ultimately begins recovering after Wade and a supposedly worthless Logan make choices that fundamentally change what they mean to that world.

That suggests a much better story idea than Marvel simply declaring one hero cosmically special: what if an anchor being is not merely the most important person in a universe, but a person who becomes load-bearing because of the relationships, choices and sacrifices around which that universe’s story organizes itself?

That is the idea I want to test. Not who has the biggest powers. Not who has appeared in the most movies. Not who Kevin Feige likes best. Who has actually become so structurally important to Earth-616 that removing them changes the shape of the story itself?

Spoiler note: Full spoilers follow for Deadpool & Wolverine, Avengers: Endgame, Loki Season 2, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

What Is An Anchor Being In Marvel?

Deadpool & Wolverine introduces an anchor being as a person whose existence is extraordinarily important to their reality. When that person dies, the universe does not immediately explode. Instead, the reality begins a long deterioration that can eventually end with the entire world disappearing.

For Wade Wilson’s Earth-10005, that person is Logan. His death at the end of Logan is therefore no longer merely the ending of one man’s story. Paradox explains that Logan’s loss has placed the entire universe on a path toward eventual extinction, and Wade’s first instinct is exactly what you would expect from somebody living inside a multiverse: go find another Wolverine.

That should solve the problem, right? Same guy. Same claws. Similar incredibly inconvenient personality.

Except Paradox tells Wade that it does not work that way. You cannot simply pull a Wolverine off another cosmic shelf and plug him into the empty Wolverine-shaped socket. Identity alone is not enough. Whatever made Logan load-bearing cannot simply be duplicated by finding another version of the same person.

And THAT is the part of the rule I find most interesting.

The Story Tool: Load-Bearing Characters

In our incursions explainer, I used the phrase load-bearing rules for fictional rules that do more than explain the universe. A load-bearing rule removes an easy option, increases pressure and eventually forces a character to make a meaningful choice. Incursions become useful when multiverse travel stops being free and somebody has to pay for interfering with another reality.

An anchor being gives us the character version of that idea: a load-bearing character. This is somebody whose importance is not isolated inside their own storyline. Relationships, conflicts, institutions, consequences and other character arcs have accumulated around them to the point that removing the person changes everyone else’s story too.

This is close to an idea screenwriting teacher John Truby uses when he talks about a character web. Truby’s point is that compelling characters are not designed as isolated people floating through a plot. They define one another. The hero’s allies, opponents, family and rivals expose different pieces of who the hero is, and the hero does the same to them.

That gives us a much better test than asking which Avenger could beat which Avenger in a fight. If Earth-616 really does have an anchor being, the strongest candidate should sit inside an unusually large relationship web. Their choices should reshape other characters. Their absence should create consequences. Most importantly, the story should demonstrate their importance before Marvel ever asks a TVA employee to explain it.

I think an MCU anchor being should have to pass four tests: relationship, consequence, choice and irreplaceability. Do other major characters become more clearly themselves in relation to this person? Does losing the person materially change the world? Did the character earn their centrality through meaningful decisions? And if you replace them with another version, does something essential remain missing?

Run the MCU’s biggest candidates through that test, and the answer gets a lot more interesting than “Doctor Strange knows the most about the multiverse.”

Tony Stark Is Still The Strongest Answer For Earth-616’s Original Anchor Being

If Marvel revealed tomorrow that Tony Stark had been Earth-616’s anchor being, nobody would be shocked. The meta argument is obvious: Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man launched the MCU, became one of the faces of the franchise, and ultimately ended the Infinity Saga by sacrificing himself to stop Thanos. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine played a similarly central role in Fox’s X-Men films, so the parallel practically writes itself.

But I actually think the meta argument is the least interesting evidence for Tony.

Look at Tony’s character web. Steve Rogers becomes Tony’s ideological opponent because both men believe in heroism while profoundly disagreeing about where authority should live. Peter Parker becomes Tony’s surrogate son and forces Tony to confront the difference between building something and caring for someone. Pepper represents the ordinary life Tony insists he wants but repeatedly places at risk. Bruce Banner becomes his intellectual collaborator. Rhodey becomes the loyal friend willing to challenge him. Thanos becomes the nightmare version of Tony’s own need to see the threat before everybody else and do whatever is necessary to solve it.

Tony does not merely have relationships with those characters. Major pieces of their stories are defined by what Tony believes, what Tony fears, and what Tony chooses to do.

Even his greatest mistakes become structurally contagious. Tony’s terror after New York helps produce Ultron. Ultron helps produce Sokovia. Sokovia helps produce the Accords. The Accords rupture the Avengers. That rupture leaves Earth’s heroes divided before Thanos arrives. Tony’s weakness does not stay politely inside an Iron Man movie. It spreads through the universe.

Then Endgame gives Tony the choice that finally completes that arc. He has spent years believing responsibility means being smart enough, prepared enough and powerful enough to solve the catastrophe before anyone else can. His final victory is not building the perfect suit or discovering the perfect equation. It is accepting a cost he cannot engineer his way around.

Tony dies so everyone else can continue.

That sounds awfully familiar when placed next to Logan.

Tony’s Sacrifice Matters More Than Tony’s Popularity

This is where I think a lot of anchor-being speculation takes the easy route. Tony must be the anchor because he was the biggest star. Wolverine was the biggest star of the X-Men movies. Therefore, Tony equals Wolverine.

Maybe. But if Marvel wants this idea to function as story rather than corporate self-reference, Tony’s importance should come from the nature of his final choice. Logan’s death matters because the final act of Logan completes the moral journey of a man who spent years trying to outlive attachment. He dies protecting Laura and a generation of mutant children, finally accepting the family and purpose he had repeatedly tried to avoid.

Tony’s ending does something similar. The selfish weapons manufacturer who once treated responsibility like somebody else’s department ultimately becomes the person willing to lose the future he finally wanted in order to preserve everybody else’s. His death is not powerful merely because Iron Man is famous. It is powerful because Tony’s final action proves who he became.

That is why I would call Tony the strongest candidate for the MCU’s former anchor being. His relationships organize huge portions of the Infinity Saga, his mistakes alter the larger world, his death fundamentally changes the franchise, and his final choice crystallizes the argument of his entire character arc.

There is just one problem.

Tony is dead.

If Tony Was The Anchor Being, Marvel Has A Succession Problem

Deadpool & Wolverine creates a strange piece of cosmology if we interpret anchor beings too literally. Logan is mortal. Tony is mortal. Almost every plausible anchor-being candidate is mortal. If every universe begins dying whenever one specific mortal person eventually dies, then every reality is essentially born with an expiration date based on whichever human happened to win the cosmic lottery.

That does not make much sense as a permanent system unless one of two things is true. Either anchor beings are a deliberately absurd, meta-textual idea that Marvel never intends to turn into hard multiverse science, or the role can somehow move, develop or be assumed by someone else.

Deadpool & Wolverine does not give us a clean answer. In fact, it explicitly rejects Wade’s first theory that simply importing a Wolverine variant will automatically fix everything. Yet by the end of the movie, Wade’s reality is no longer heading toward the immediate destruction Paradox intended, and the TVA discovers that something unusual is happening to the timeline after Wade and Logan’s joint act of sacrifice.

I would not call that proof that this Logan officially becomes the new anchor being. Marvel has not said that. What interests me is the dramatic shape of what happens instead: Wade tries to solve the problem through replacement and fails. The story is ultimately saved through relationship and choice.

That is a clue worth taking seriously.

Spider-Man Is The Best Candidate To Become The MCU’s Next Anchor Being

Peter Parker is the candidate I keep coming back to because his MCU story already begins inside Tony Stark’s relationship web. Tony recruits him in Civil War, gives him increasingly powerful technology, takes the suit away when Peter confuses equipment with heroism, loses him on Titan, and eventually risks reopening the entire Thanos problem because he cannot stop carrying the memory of Peter’s death.

Then Tony dies, and Far From Home immediately asks Peter whether he is supposed to become the next Iron Man.

Peter’s answer, correctly, is no.

That matters because succession becomes incredibly boring if it means Peter simply inherits Tony’s job. The much stronger possibility is that Peter inherits Tony’s structural responsibility while becoming a completely different kind of center. Tony’s MCU is built around control, invention and the escalating consequences of one extraordinary man believing he can solve the future. Peter’s story keeps moving toward responsibility through connection, vulnerability and sacrifice.

No Way Home pushes that as far as it can go. Peter tries to solve a deeply personal problem by altering reality itself, creates a multiversal catastrophe, and eventually chooses the solution that costs him the thing he values most: his place inside the lives of MJ, Ned and everybody else who knows Peter Parker.

He saves the world by surrendering his relationship to it.

That is already anchor-being material.

Brand New Day Makes Peter’s Case Much Stronger

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is where the argument becomes much more interesting, because the movie does not simply restore everything Peter lost. It asks whether Peter can become connected again without using power to force the old world back into place.

That is a crucial distinction. Peter begins this phase of his life having learned the worst possible lesson from No Way Home: people are safer when Peter Parker disappears and Spider-Man does everything alone. He has converted sacrifice into isolation.

Then the movie surrounds him with characters who pressure that belief from different directions. Jean Grey desperately needs connection but possesses powers that can violate the boundaries between people. Frank Castle responds to loss by severing connection and turning pain into violent certainty. Peter’s own mutation tempts him toward another version of control, asking whether he can suppress a dangerous part of himself rather than integrate it.

Those are not random supporting characters. They are a character web built around different responses to the same question: What do you do when connection becomes dangerous?

Peter’s answer is not to become stronger than everyone else. It is to remain available to other people despite what it may cost him.

That is why the Jean Grey climax matters. Peter does not solve Jean by overpowering her or deciding that her danger gives him the right to control her. He opens himself to her. He allows her access to the part of him that still carries Aunt May. Then, when Frank chooses the clean, violent solution and takes the shot, Peter puts himself between the bullet and Jean.

Peter becomes important by taking responsibility for someone who can hurt him.

Now… think about that next to Tony.

Tony And Peter Represent Two Different Kinds Of Load-Bearing Hero

Tony’s final heroic act is sacrifice through control. He takes possession of the Stones, makes the decision nobody else can make in that instant, and gives his life to impose one final outcome on the battle. It works because his entire story has earned that moment.

Peter’s emerging heroic identity works differently. His best moments increasingly involve preserving another person’s ability to choose. He refuses to send the villains of No Way Home back simply to die if he can help them. He accepts the erasure of his own identity rather than allow reality to collapse around everybody else. In Brand New Day, he responds to Jean’s dangerous loss of control by creating connection instead of imposing another form of control.

If Tony’s great weakness was believing responsibility meant being the person who had to hold the knife, Peter’s danger is believing responsibility means bleeding alone so nobody else has to participate.

That gives Marvel somewhere to take him.

Peter should not become Earth-616’s next anchor because the universe needs the most popular active superhero. He should become load-bearing because his relationships increasingly connect different corners of the MCU while his moral choices keep returning to the same question: how much of himself is he willing to give without taking away someone else’s humanity?

That is a story function.

Doctor Strange Has The Strongest Lore Case — But A Weaker Character-Web Case

Doctor Strange is probably the candidate most likely to appear on a theory board covered in red string. He understands the multiverse better than most active MCU heroes, has directly participated in universe-threatening events, saw the path to victory against Thanos, and now has an incursion problem attached to him through Clea.

There is also a famous Kevin Feige comment from years before Deadpool & Wolverine in which he described Benedict Cumberbatch as an “anchor” of the MCU while praising the actor’s importance to the franchise. That is fun evidence in hindsight, but I would not treat a ceremonial compliment as retroactive confirmation of multiverse physics.

The larger issue is structural. Strange is deeply important to the machinery of the MCU, but fewer major character arcs are organized around their relationship to Stephen Strange. He often operates as the person who understands the dangerous system and explains the rules governing it. That makes him incredibly useful to the plot.

An anchor being, at least in the version I find dramatically satisfying, should be more than useful to the plot. Their absence should tear a hole in the human web around them.

Strange may still get there, especially if Doomsday and Secret Wars put his need for control directly into conflict with other heroes trying to save their own realities. Right now, though, I see him more clearly as one of the people most responsible for understanding the load-bearing rules than as Earth-616’s load-bearing person.

Loki May Be Too Important To Be Earth-616’s Anchor Being

Loki has almost the opposite problem. By the end of Season 2, he is so structurally important that calling him the anchor being of one universe almost feels like a demotion.

He is physically sustaining the branching timelines. His sacrifice occurs outside the ordinary experience of Earth-616, and his responsibility now extends across realities rather than simply through one of them. If the term “anchor being” means a person uniquely tied to the health of one particular world, Loki appears to be operating one level above the job description.

Story-wise, however, he is perhaps Marvel’s purest example of a load-bearing character becoming load-bearing through choice. The Loki who once demanded a throne eventually receives one only when sitting on it requires giving up the friends and belonging he actually learned to value.

Nobody needs to explain Loki’s importance with a TVA graphic.

We watched him earn the burden.

Wanda Is Powerful Enough — But Power Is The Wrong Test

Wanda Maximoff is another popular answer, and WandaVision director Matt Shakman has personally named her when asked who he would choose. She certainly has the power level for anybody whose definition of an anchor being begins with “person capable of doing horrifying things to reality.”

But that is exactly why I would hesitate. Anchor beings become less interesting if they are simply another category of cosmic power. Logan was not the most powerful person in Marvel’s multiverse. What made his loss matter was the life, relationships and sacrifice that gathered around him.

Wanda has an extraordinarily strong emotional and thematic story, but her current relationship web is narrower than Tony’s or Peter’s. Vision, Pietro, Billy, Tommy, Agatha and Strange all matter enormously to her, but she has spent significant portions of her MCU life deliberately isolated from the larger heroic community.

That could change. It may even be the point of wherever Wanda’s story ultimately goes. But right now, calling her Earth’s anchor because she can rewrite reality would confuse power with dramatic centrality.

The Best Anchor Being Isn’t Necessarily The Most Powerful Person

This is where the candidate-list version of this conversation starts falling apart. Tony is not the best candidate because he built the most advanced armor. Peter would not become a better candidate if tomorrow’s movie gave him the strength to punch Thor through a building. Strange does not win because he can open portals. Wanda does not win because she can alter reality. Loki does not win because he is currently doing something extremely close to holding the multiverse in his hands.

The question is not, “Who can hold the universe together?”

The question is, “Whose story holds the universe together?”

That is a much harder thing to measure, but it is also much closer to what Deadpool & Wolverine is doing with Logan. Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was the continuity running through a wildly inconsistent collection of X-Men films, but Logan also became the emotional bridge between Xavier, Jean, Rogue, Laura and multiple generations of that franchise. The world losing him means something because the stories around him had already taught us that he meant something.

If Marvel wants Earth-616’s anchor-being reveal to land, it needs the same foundation.

The Irreplaceability Test Is The Most Important One

This brings us back to Wade’s failed plan. He finds another Wolverine and assumes the problem is solved. Paradox laughs at him because Wade has misunderstood the rule. A variant is not a replacement part.

That gives Marvel a surprisingly useful principle heading toward Doomsday and Secret Wars. If Tony really was Earth-616’s anchor being, Robert Downey Jr.’s face showing up somewhere else in the multiverse should not be enough to fix Tony’s absence. Doom cannot become Tony because he resembles Tony. Another Tony variant cannot simply walk into Avengers Tower and restore whatever was lost.

What mattered was not the face. It was the accumulated history.

The same principle applies to Peter. If he eventually becomes load-bearing, it should happen because the MCU’s people, conflicts and moral choices increasingly organize themselves around him. You cannot replace that by pulling another Spider-Man out of another universe, no matter how much we love Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield.

That is why the word anchor actually works. An anchor matters because of what it is connected to.

Why This Could Matter To Avengers: Doomsday

If Earth-616 has lost its anchor being, then Doomsday suddenly has a very interesting background condition. The heroes are not merely facing incursions from outside their universe; they may be defending a reality that is already structurally vulnerable from within.

That would give Doctor Doom an extraordinary argument. He can look at Tony Stark’s death, the Avengers’ fragmentation, Strange’s multiverse interference, the TVA’s manipulation of timelines and the growing collision between realities and conclude that Earth-616 has lost the person or structure that once held its heroic age together.

Then Doom offers himself.

Not necessarily as an “anchor being” in the literal TVA definition, but as the new center of order. Tony held the universe together through relationship and eventually sacrifice. Doom can argue that the obvious lesson is that a world this fragile requires someone permanent enough, intelligent enough and ruthless enough to stop relying on fragile human relationships at all.

That would make Peter particularly important. Doom’s answer to instability would be control. Peter’s emerging answer is connection.

Now we have an actual argument.

Who Is The MCU Anchor Being? Candidate Rankings

If I had to rank the current Earth-616 possibilities strictly from what the MCU has given us, this is where I land. These are not canon confirmations; they are rankings based on how strongly each character fits the role mechanically and, more importantly, dramatically.

Candidate	Current Case	Storycraft Case
Tony Stark	Strongest candidate for the Infinity Saga era	Extremely strong: huge relationship web, universe-changing consequences, sacrificial ending
Peter Parker	Unconfirmed, but increasingly central	Strongest future candidate: sacrifice, connection and expanding relationship web
Doctor Strange	Very strong multiverse connection	Important to the machinery, less central to the larger relationship web
Loki	Literally sustaining branching timelines	Extremely load-bearing, but probably operating above one specific universe
Wanda Maximoff	Major reality-altering figure	Powerful thematic case, weaker current franchise-center case

So my answer today is deliberately split in two: Tony Stark is the strongest candidate for who Earth-616’s anchor being was. Peter Parker is the strongest candidate for who could become the next one.

And if Marvel eventually reveals somebody else, the same test should apply. The designation needs to confirm a story we have already experienced, not manufacture importance after the fact.

MCU Anchor Being FAQ

Who Is The Anchor Being Of Earth-616?

Marvel has not officially identified Earth-616’s anchor being. Tony Stark is one of the strongest candidates because of his central role in the Infinity Saga and his sacrificial death in Avengers: Endgame, but that remains theory rather than confirmed MCU canon.

Was Tony Stark The MCU’s Anchor Being?

Possibly, but Marvel has not confirmed it. Tony fits the concept unusually well because his relationships and decisions shape much of the Infinity Saga, and his death resembles Logan’s in one important respect: both characters complete their arcs through enormous acts of self-sacrifice.

Is Spider-Man The MCU’s Anchor Being?

Marvel has not identified Peter Parker as an anchor being. However, Peter is one of the strongest future candidates because his story increasingly connects multiple parts of Earth-616 while repeatedly testing him through responsibility, sacrifice and relationships rather than cosmic power alone.

Is Doctor Strange The Anchor Being?

Doctor Strange is a plausible candidate because of his importance to the multiverse and the future incursion story. Kevin Feige also once described Benedict Cumberbatch as an “anchor” of the MCU, although that comment came before Deadpool & Wolverine introduced anchor beings as a specific concept and should not be treated as canon confirmation.

Is Loki An Anchor Being?

The MCU has not identified Loki as an anchor being. By the end of Loki Season 2 he is sustaining the branching timelines themselves, which arguably makes his role larger than being the anchor of one specific reality such as Earth-616.

Is Scarlet Witch The MCU’s Anchor Being?

Marvel has not confirmed Wanda Maximoff as Earth-616’s anchor being. WandaVision director Matt Shakman has said Wanda would be his personal choice, but that was his opinion rather than a canon reveal from Marvel Studios.

Can An Anchor Being Be Replaced?

Deadpool & Wolverine explicitly complicates that idea. Wade assumes he can replace his dead Logan with another Wolverine variant, but Paradox tells him that simply importing another version of the same person will not fix the universe. The film’s ending leaves open a more interesting possibility: a reality may recover through circumstances and choices that the TVA itself does not fully understand.

Is An Anchor Being The Same As A Nexus Being?

No confirmed MCU material establishes anchor beings and nexus beings as the same concept. Anchor beings are introduced in Deadpool & Wolverine as individuals whose loss can cause a universe to deteriorate, while “nexus being” has a different history and meaning in Marvel mythology.

The Doom Ledger

• Moves toward Doomsday: If Earth-616 lost something structurally important when Tony died, Doom enters a universe already searching for a new center. Peter’s growing role as a connector gives Marvel a character-based counterargument to Doom’s promise of control.
• Doesn’t: Marvel still has not confirmed that Tony, Peter, Strange, Loki or Wanda is Earth-616’s anchor being, and Deadpool & Wolverine does not establish a clean succession rule.
• Odds today: Tony as the former anchor is the cleanest retrospective answer. Peter becoming the next load-bearing center is the story choice I find much more interesting.

Why The MCU’s Anchor Being Has To Be Earned

We started with a simple question: who is important enough to hold Earth-616 together? I think that question is slightly wrong. The better question is who has become load-bearing because the choices, relationships and consequences of the MCU have gathered around them until removing that person changes the entire shape of the story.

Logan gives us the first proof beat: Wade tries to replace an important person with another version of the same person and discovers that identity alone is not enough. Peter gives us the more interesting future possibility: after losing his own place in the world, he keeps choosing connection, sacrifice and responsibility until the relationships around him begin giving him a new place inside it.

That is useful well beyond Marvel. A truly central character is not important because the mythology labels them special; they become central because the story cannot remove them without forcing everyone else to become different too.

An anchor does not matter because of what it is. It matters because of everything tied to it.

 

APROPOS OF NOTHING…

• The internet’s Hawkeye argument deserves respect: the Avengers do have a suspiciously strong record whenever Clint Barton actually bothers to show up. Doctor Doom apparently studied the tape and waited for retirement.
• I desperately do not want Doomsday to give us a holographic TVA screen with a giant glowing portrait of “THE ANCHOR BEING.” Make me feel why the person matters first.
• There is something wonderfully Deadpool about accidentally introducing a cosmological rule that immediately creates approximately 9,000 questions the movie itself has no interest in answering.
• Loki sitting outside the timelines while everyone on Earth argues about which Avenger is most important is extremely Loki.
• The Peter/Tony comparison becomes much more interesting when Peter’s job is not “be the next Iron Man.” It is to become the kind of center Tony could never be.