When Avengers: Infinity War, the 19th of the Marvel movies in order, rolled around in 2018, one of its first big moments was Thanos beating up Hulk so bad that he never emerged from Bruce Banner again, as Avengers: Endgame saw the two halves being merged into one. However, in real life, Mark Ruffalo and Josh Brolin are pretty chummy with each other. Case in point, the former shared some love on social media for the latter’s memoir, which one fan described as “The Hulk’s reading Thanos’ book.”
Brolin’s memoir, titled From Under the Truck: A Memoir, was released last week, and Ruffalo is among the many who acquired a copy. Clearly he’s having a good time reading, as evidenced by what he posted on Instagram:
As you’ll see when going through the comments section, the aforementioned fan summarized this post perfectly, while another fan asked that Mark Ruffalo give them the “Hulk vs Thanos rematch.” Don’t count on that happening since, as mentioned earlier, the original Hulk doesn’t exist anymore, with Bruce Banner now permanently in his Smart Hulk form (minus when he reverted to human form for a bit during Phase Four to heal his damaged arm). But hey, at least Ruffalo is enjoying learning about Josh Brolin’s life through his memoir, which he described as “a testament to the healing and redemptive significance of art, love and a Higher Power.”
Brolin has been making the press rounds this month to promote From Under the Truck and chat about a variety of other topics, including that time he didn’t realize Denzel Washington was fully in character and his thoughts on James Cameron being “angry” that he turned down Avatar. As far as Marvel goes, while Avengers: Endgame marked his last appearance as Thanos in the movies, Brolin did voice alternate versions of the character in two episodes of What If… ?, which can be viewed with a Disney+ subscription. Beyond that though, there’s no indication that he’ll ever play any version of Thanos again.
With Mark Ruffalo, we have no idea what’s in store for his Hulk future either, but at least the chances of him returning to the MCU are a lot stronger. At the end of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Bruce Banner, who’d embarked out into space after training his cousin Jennifer Walters, came back to Earth and introduced his son Skaar. While it remains to be seen when this lingering plot thread will be readdressed, I suspect we’ll see Ruffalo back as Smart Hulk in the upcoming Marvel movies Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
As for their non-Marvel work, both men will be seen numerous times on the 2025 movies schedule, with Josh Brolin starring in Wake Up Dead Man and The Running Man, and Mark Ruffalo starring in Mickey 17, Now You See Me 3 and Crime 101.
