Mark Ruffalo spent most of Avengers: Infinity War trying to summon the Hulk after facing Thanos in the opening scene, and even fought in Tony Stark’s Hulkbuster armor to compensate. Not seeing Bruce Banner revert to Mr. Green did bum some MCU fans, but that wasn’t the focus given all the chaos Thanos was spreading. With multiple tales of different endings for the penultimate Phase 3 film, Ruffalo just added another layer to the “what-if” pile. The MCU star revealed there was an alternate ending for the anger-filled Avenger in Infinity War.
Popverse reported the Hulk actor made the revelation during a panel at Emerald City Comic Con 2023. Of course, spilling the details of the unheard-of Hulk ending might’ve gone against the studio’s veil of secrecy, which hasn't deterred Mark Ruffalo in the past. The actor from Netflix's The Adam Project opened up about working within the MCU before detailing the Hulk moment that never made it into the final film.
It’s been amazing fun, and really challenging and always surprising. Even to the point where we were shooting [Avengers:] Infinity War, and Hulk was supposed to come busting out of the Hulkbuster at the end and we shot that, we shot it four times and it wasn’t working, and we realized — well, the [Russo Brothers] realized — that we couldn’t have Hulk save the day again, and we had to have Banner… lose.
Not having Bruce Banner Hulk out made sense in Infinity War, as Thanos had to obtain the Infinity Stones so the events of Avengers: Endgame could happen. As Ruffalo pointed out, most situations in the MCU were saved by the Hulk coming in and wrecking the shop. Deviating from that formula kept the penultimate film seem more dire and challenging than prior Avengers films. Having Banner lose was needed to make the Blip even more impactful.
Of course, putting a scene on paper and filming it are vastly different. The moment didn’t work once the cast and crew got on the set. Mark Ruffalo revealed at the convention what it was like prepping two years for the cut scene before shifting toward the final scene.
That was the kind of thing where it was in the script one way for two years, and then when we came to shoot it, we decided it would be better if Hulk didn’t show up, and Banner had to try to make friends with him to get him to show up.
Mark Ruffalo did admit the transition from the original scene to the final one wasn’t easy. He revealed the Hulkbuster scene went through numerous rewrites, leading to the crew shooting “the scene like five times over the course of a year.” However, the constant changes worked for the Oscar nominee, as he mentioned the cast and crew were “always kind of finding it as we go along.”
Things have worked out for Mark Ruffalo as he continues his time as Hulk. After appearing in the Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, he is rumored to appear in Avengers: Secret Wars. Check out what other new Marvel movies in Phase 5 and 6 films are coming down the pipeline. You can also look back at all the Marvel movies in order to witness the aggressive Hulk morph into the Smart Hulk through a Disney+ subscription.
