This Friday there are going to be a lot of people walking out of movie theaters nationwide and turning to their friends,saying, "The Hulk is awesome!" In Joss Whedon's The Avengers the character is finally given the big-screen treatment he deserves, as the movie perfectly plays with Bruce Banner's fear of his own inner demon while also having a lot of fun playing with Hulk's physicality. Still, however, the hero's solo movies have never performed particularly well, either critically or at the box office, so what's the future for The Hulk?
I had the chance a few weeks back to speak with Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige aboutThe Avengers and asked specifically about what the future holds in terms of more Hulk movies. "There are not a lot of plans going forward," Feige said. "The plan was make an Avengers movie where people like yourself came out of it saying, 'I love the Hulk!' If we’ve done that, that is a huge achievement. We have, as you can imagine, many, many options with Mark Ruffalo, so we’ll start to figure out when and what that will be." He went on to say that while their second 2014 movie hasn't been announced yet, it definitely won't be a Hulk solo film. "Frankly, it took a lot of time to get this version of the Hulk," Feige continued. "So we’re not going to turn around and rush something and undo all that good will. So we’ll see, but the first step is being very encouraged and hoping that when the world sees the movie they react the same way to the Hulk."
That said, Feige made those comments before The Avengers was released internationally (where it's already broken some box office records). In a recent interview with Paul Gitter, Marvel's director of consumer products, Forbes learned that there has been a "phenomenal response" to the new Hulk merchandise, saying that sales have been up "in a major way." Should this pattern continue, it could affect Marvel's plans going forward as they will "'spin him off to a stand-alone program next year,' supported by a big budget franchise movie in 2015."
Now, Gitter's wording is a bit confusing. It should be noted that there is still a Hulk television show in development, which Feige confirmed when I spoke to him (though I also asked if Ruffalo could potentially star in the show and Feige gave a defiant "No") and it's possible that the 2015 movie could be The Avengers 2. Until this situation is cleared up, allow me to toss the question to you: do you think there should be a new Hulk solo movie?
