Ruffalo: ‘Thor: Ragnarok’, ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ will combine to feel like ‘Hulk’ standalone movie

The Hulk.

Yeah, I don’t know. Mark Ruffalo has a, uh, curious way of describing his character’s presence in Thor 3, and Avengers 3 and 4. The Actor Who Hulks states that in lieu of a Hulk standalone movie thanks to Marvel Studios+Universal Film People Stuff beef, the character’s arc in his next three movies will combine to feel like a standalone movie. Which sort of makes sense? Like — I imagine if you combine the arcs of any of the characters across three or more movies, you have a significant amount of character development.

UPROXX:

Mark Ruffalo is taking a little break from his duties as Bruce Banner / The Hulk for now. Next up for the actor is a sequel to his magic heist film Now You See Me, but for the moment he’s been busy doing promotion (and receiving accolades) for Spotlight, which tells the true story of the reporters who revealed the Boston Catholic church’s systematic cover-up of child rape.

Spotlight is certainly an amazing film and worth watching, but if you were wondering when Ruffalo will return to The Hulk (perhaps in a stand alone film?), we’ve got some bad news for you. Via Yahoo:

“I’d love to do a Hulk movie, but that’s beyond my control,” he said. “It’s controlled by Universal. Marvel doesn’t even hold the rights to it. So, it’s not on the horizon. And I don’t know if it will be.”

“But we’ve worked a really interesting arc into ‘Thor 3′, ‘Avengers 3′ and ‘4′ for Banner that I think will – when it’s all added up – will feel like a Hulk movie, a standalone movie.”

Fans jonesing for a proper Hulk movie shouldn’t despair completely: if Sony and Marvel can team up to bring Spider-Man back into the Marvel Universe,perhaps Universal could do the same. I doubt they have an original idea compelling enough to try another Hulk stand alone movie, and even if they tried their Hulk would just be perceived as a cheap knockoff compared to Ruffalo’s Hulk in The Avengers movie. So why not get back in bed with Marvel?

There’d still be a while to wait even if that very hypothetical situation came to pass. Thor: Ragnarok is currently scheduled for a 2017 release, with theAvengers: Infinity War movies coming out in 2018 and 2019. Hulk 2020? A fan can dream, right? Especially when Marvel has been so consistent with making those dreams come true