Almost all of the major superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have their own standalone movie or series that deals with the origin story of their character. However, that would never be possible for Mark Ruffalo as the origin story of his character had already been covered in The Incredible Hulk movie in which Edward Norton portrayed the role of the titular character back in 2008.
Mark Ruffalo opens up about how Robert Downey Jr. messed up his big reveal
The Hulk has been a key part of the MCU for a long time now but is also the only member of the founding Avengers that has not received a stand-alone movie or series ever since the release of Avengers. The Hulk made his debut in the MCU back in 2008 with The Incredible Hulk.
In the movie, Edward Norton played the role of Bruce Banner but due to his disagreement with the Marvel studios about the final edit of the film, he was discontinued as the character and eventually, Mark Ruffalo was offered the role by Robert Downey Jr.
In a recent interview at the Santa Barbara Internation Film Festival, Mark Ruffalo narrated the story of how he was introduced at his first comic con as the Hulk by RDJ and said,
“My dear friend, Robert Downey Jr. was introducing me. He told me that I should play the Hulk and it was going to be a big surprise for everybody. He said, ‘And now, reprising the role of Bruce Banner, Mark Ruffalo.’ And they all went ‘Hey’ to ‘Huh?’
I think the word ‘reprising’ which meant playing again which meant Ed Norton kind of threw them all off. So, my big reveal was completely botched and my stepping out of that stage was a huge disappointment, right off the bat.”
Mark Ruffalo further revealed that he was indeed thankful for the role of The Hulk as it changed the trajectory of his career.
The Zodiac actor talks about the future of The Hulk in the MCU
Later in the interview, after Mark Ruffalo talked about how he did the part of The Hulk for almost 12 years out of his love of the character, he was asked if he was also involved in the making of scripts. Ruffalo explained although he does help the directors and writers with the scripts of the movie at times, Kevin Feige would not let him have a standalone Hulk movie. He said,
“Yeah, Kevin[Feige] asked ‘What would you like to do if you had a standalone Hulk movie?’ I said, ‘Well, I’d like to take him from this raging maniac to this integrated character’ and he’s like, ‘Okay, we’ll do that over the course of four movies. We’ll never give you a standalone Hulk.’
I don’t mean to burst anyone’s bubble … As far as I know, [it’s still true] … I can talk more about it but I’ve been told not to.”
Well, it seems like we’ll never be getting a World War Hulk movie anytime soon now but we would definetely be seeing more of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner aka The Hulk in the future.
Ruffalo confirmed that he would be reprising his role as the mean and green character once again in Captain America: The Brave New World which will be released in 2025.
