Everyone seemed to get excited at the prospect that Mark Ruffalo would star in new solo HULK film after the incredible reception the character got in THE AVENGERS. With AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON in full swing and said to contain a major storyline for the green guy, the questions became when would we get to see PLANET HULK on the big screen?
I mean, after Ang Lee‘s existential HULK and Louis Leterrier‘s more action-packed THE INCREDIBLE HULK, it seems logical to go with the biggest storyline for the character in recent memory, right? Not according to Mark Ruffalo. The actor recently made comments that he does not think the Planet Hulk storyline would be the best fit for the next solo outing for the character and he has a pretty good reason why.
“I don’t think that’s where they’re going to go… “Planet Hulk” is: they actually launch Bruce Banner into space to try and get rid of him and the Hulk. And he ends up freaking out, smashing up the spaceship, and it goes off course and it ends up on this planet of gladiator creatures, like pre-Christian, Romanesque.”
“I don’t think that’s the way to go yet. I think you need more Banner. The whole thing is just him as Hulk, on a planet, fighting other gladiators. He falls in love, he has a baby, he finds a woman… and then The Avengers nuke the planet.”
Kevin Feige made similar statements as to why PLANET HULK or even WORLD WAR HULK would not be ideal for the big screen as they would be paying a ton of money for Ruffalo to just do motion capture in those films. Bruce Banner himself is a non-factor in those comic stories and while fans might love them, it is likely not going to happen in the near future.
Personally, I would love to see a fully mo-cap performance, especially if the Hulk begins to speak more dialogue as he does in virtually every comic and animated incarnation of the character. Ruffalo has been working with Andy Serkis on AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON and we all know how incredible that guy is able to make his mo-capped performances. I hope that there truly is some consideration made for PLANET HULK in the future as much as I hope they plan a really good story for HULK 3.
AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON is slated for release on May 1, 2015.