Mark Ruffalo thinks a solo Hulk film “feels even further away”

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Rumors about another solo Hulk movie existing within the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been churning around the mill for years now, and yet we haven’t gotten any indication that there are actually any plans to do something with the Hulk on his own. We’ve heard about Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, but none of those rumblings have amounted to much other than fan theories and speculation.

Unfortunately, the rights situation with the Hulk is a bit complex and isn’t going to lead easily into any of those concepts making the big screen. Marvel Studios does hold the film rights to the Hulk, but Universal still maintains right of first refusal to distribute those films. Therefore, Universal has skin in the game for anything Marvel might want to do with the Hulk by himself, and, as we all know with Marvel, they aren’t going to go ahead and share their success with other studios unless there is something advantageous for them in the deal. They can keep everything if they include Hulk in other movies, like THOR: RAGNAROK, but the second they want to do something solo, Universal can take a bite of that box office pie.

As a result, it doesn’t look like we’re any closer to getting another Hulk movie anytime soon, with even Mark Ruffalo observing that such a possibility looks pretty far away at this point.

Actually, it feels even further away. It’s not Marvel’s property, it’s Universal’s property. I don’t know. It seems really problematic. I’ve been around long enough to be OK with it. There’s only so much that’s in my power and I’m not going to agonize over what is not in my power. I definitely try to limit that to my kids and the things that really matter to me.

That’s the right attitude to have for something you have no control over, and it’s not like Ruffalo doesn’t still get to play the Hulk whenever he’s called upon. But there are still plenty of What If’s that surround the character, as his potential remains largely untapped after two films that barely scratched the surface of what he can do. Could Marvel one day come to some sort of agreement with Universal, in order to make this all happen? Well, they did manage to bring Spider-Man into the MCU, so I’d say anything is possible. Right now though, it doesn’t seem very likely.