This fall, moviegoers will be able to see the Hulk co-star in Thor: Ragnarok before taking the fight to Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War and the untitled Avengers 4. There isn't any shortage of the Green Goliath over the next couple of years but none of those appearances will be in a Hulk solo movie. The movie rights for the Hulk are...complicated to say the least and Mark Ruffalo isn't exactly confident that it can be worked out. The Hulk actor revealed that there will likely never be another Hulk solo movie in the MCU and it's all Universal's fault. According To Ruffalo...
A standalone Hulk movie will never happen because Universal has the rights for 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 money.
This weekend belonged to Disney as the entertainment juggernaut held its D23 Expo, where it revealed all the latest developments and teases for its upcoming projects. The king of the crop was yesterday's live action panel where Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios unloaded the goods on Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Avengers: Infinity War, two of the biggest movies coming out over the next year. Mark Ruffalo (plus about a quarter of the rest of the cast of Infinity War) was on hand to show off some new footage and, of course, speak to some journalists. When asked by Variety if there were any standalone Hulk movie in the works, Ruffalo made sure to set the record straight: there will never be a standalone Hulk film because Universal owns the rights and they don't want to play ball.
Even though the Hulk appears fairly regularly in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the situation with his movie rights is a bit complicated. As it goes, Universal owns the rights to any standalone Hulk movie, but he can appear in Avengers movies where his name isn't in the title. Hence using Thor: Ragnarok to tell a Planet Hulk adaptation. So, Marvel Studios can't make a Hulk standalone without working together with Universal.
Now, in the wake of the unprecedented collaboration between Marvel and Sony to make Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is a big success, this sort of teamwork between studios may not be entirely out of the question. However, Mark Ruffalo doesn't seem confident that Universal is game. True, the Spider-Man situation may be a one in a million scenario, but now we now that sort of union is not impossible.
While a Hulk standalone is not currently in the cards, you can see the Hulk in a rip-roarin' space adventure in Thor: Ragnarok, which hits theaters November 3, 2017. To learn more about the film, here's what we know so far.
