Fans have been clamoring for a solo Hulk movie for years, and for a while it seemed like we might be getting one based on the popular "Planet Hulk" storyline. Instead, elements from that story have been weaved into Thor: Ragnarok, which finds Mark Ruffalo's jade giant teaming up with Chris Hemsworth's god of thunder. While the reason given is that Universal, who have the Hulk's film rights, haven't been willing to play ball with Marvel, mostly forgotten is that the two sides have already come together on a Hulk movie within the MCU. So why couldn't it happen again? Maybe not right now, but if they were going to do one, some of the threads are being placed in the Hulk's next few movies.
Speaking with Cinemablend, Ruffalo suggests that Thor: Ragnarok is like a little standalone story for the Hulk, with the character undergoing an evolution...
“…basically, Kevin [Feige] pulled me aside before this, and said, ‘If you were gonna do a… if we were going to do a standalone Hulk movie, what would it be?’ And I said, ‘I think it should be this, this, this, and this and this, and ends up like this.’ And he’s like, ‘I love that. Why don’t we do that in the next three movies, starting with ‘Thor 3’ and then we go into ‘Avengers 3 and 4.’ ’ And I was like, ‘That sounds great!’ And so we are at the beginning of this arc."
We've seen some of this already in the trailers, as this version of the Hulk is talking more and seems to be taking on more of Bruce Banner's personality...
“Hulk speaking is the start to separating of these two individuals, these identities in this split-identity person, and where that’s going to end up going. So it was really interesting to me. He’s like a baby! He’s like a five year old or six year old. So he has the same syntax, he has the same world view, and so it was fun. It’s like Chris [Hemsworth] – we all got to reinvent our characters in this."
How long before we get the gray intelligent Hulk? I'd love to see that.
Thor: Ragnarok opens November 3rd.
