Actor Mark Ruffalo has been playing the Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since The Avengers in 2012. But he has repeatedly stated that he does not expect to be called up for a solo film, mainly due to the bad blood in the behind the scenes between Marvel Studios. . and Universal Images.
The rights to a stand-alone Hulk film belong to Universal, which released the 2003 film with Eric Bana, and the 2008 version with Edward Norton in the lead role. A clause, similar to the one between Marvel and Sony regarding Spider-Man, allows Marvel to present the Hulk in larger scenarios as a secondary character.
“I think they worked on it,” said Ruffalo of the two studios in an interview with Yahoo in 2015. “Marvel and Universal don’t get along very well, so that certainly goes against us. But I know that everyone hopes that one day we can do it. But the nature of the relationship right now is a bit prohibitive. And I hope it changes, it changes with the diets, it changes over time. So far, it hasn’t looked particularly promising. “
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In 2017, at the D23 exhibition, Ruffalo was explicit in his irritation on this subject. “I just want to say one clear thing today: a standalone Hulk movie will never happen,” he told Variety. “Because Universal has the rights to the standalone Hulk movie and for some reason, they don’t know how to play well with Marvel, and they don’t want to make any money.” But I feel like I’m two or three years old before I am too old to play Hulk. “
It was announced in early 2020 that the character’s rights had in fact returned to Marvel and that a solo film could be on the cards. A few months later, Ruffalo in an interview with Variety seemed more optimistic. “There is an idea which I think could be really interesting,” he said. “We never really followed him in his life. He is always a little on the side. He is like the Rosencrantz and the Avengers Guildenstern. It would be interesting to fill in all the blanks on what happened to him between all these films . “
After appearing in The Avengers, Ruffalo’s Hulk starred in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. He also played a major supporting role in Thor: Ragnarok.