In a recent interview MCU star Mark Ruffalo explains again why there’s been no solo Hulk movie starring him, yet. I’m pretty sure regular LRM readers already know what Ruffalo is going to say, but I guess it’s an update nothing has changed. For those unaware, the last Hulk solo movie was The Incredible Hulk starring Edward Norton as Banner, not Ruffalo. As for why, here’s what Ruffalo said in a GQ interview,
“I don’t know if you know the story of that, but it’s not really owned by Marvel. It’s a Universal property. I don’t know if it’ll ever really come to be, honestly. We keep talking about it, what it would be. There’s been so many Hulk movies already, it’s like, does anyone really want another one? But I’d love one, and I do think the audiences would be into it if we could crack the nut of it.”
As to Ruffalo asking, would we want another Hulk movie? Well, to be fair there’s been a total of two live-action Hulk movies, ever. That’s not including TV movies, but it’s true for theatrical. Sadly in my opinion neither got it right. If I were to merge both Hulk and The Incredible Hulk into one package, we might be in a great place. That’s not how it went down though.
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Hulk is too weird, but then gets Hulk’s strength right and the dynamic of the army chasing him through the American wilderness. The Incredible Hulk had a better story going on, which was definitely more accessible. However for me, Hulk was too weak and I was overjoyed to see this course corrected in Avengers. Say what you will about Joss Whedon, the man filmed the best live-action Hulk sequences ever seen thus far.
I would absolutley love to see a proper Hulk movie, where Banner has to deal with his anger again. Betty, that whole thing, I’d be happy to see brought back up, but it’s not essential. We have The Leader now, albeit he was done poorly. Also Red Hulk proves the Gamma beast situation is potentially set to explode in the MCU. It just needs a really good film, script wise and the right director to make a hit film.
So, yeah, I want and have wanted a better solo Hulk film since I saw what this character could be in Avengers, 13 years ago. We nearly got back there in Thor: Ragnarok, but since then… Look, I admit Professor Hulk worked for Endgame, it was the right call, and an evolution. I’m just happy it looks like Spider-Man: Brand New Day seems to have a regression back to Savage Hulk.
Oh well, like Mark Ruffalo explains again, due to rights issues, that remain unresolved, we can’t get a solo Hulk movie. Therefore, until that is sorted, I cannot really blame Kevin Feige for not giving us more Hulk content, can I? Let’s blame the suits then, on both sides of this studio rights problem. Disney could just pay the money to get the rights back, surely there’s a price? Maybe I’m being naïve there.
What do you think of this whole situation, are we ever going to see this resolved? Thoughts below.
