There’s little doubt that Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk was one of the highlights of Joss Whedon’s blockbuster superhero ensemble The Avengers, but with the Green Goliath absent from Marvel’s Phase Two line-up of Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy, it seemed that the cinematic future of Bruce Banner and his raging alter-ego remained uncertain, at least until The Avengers 2 in 2015.
Well, it still is – but El Mayimbe of Latino Review claims to have uncovered some juicy details about Marvel’s plans for The Incredible Hulk in Phase Three of the MCU; now this could just be speculation, but if you want to avoid any potential spoilers for The Avengers 2, Phase Three and The Avengers 3, you might want to stop reading…
So, according to the site’s sources The Avengers 2 will set up The Hulk’s next solo movie, with a third act or post-credits sequence that sees the Hulk blasted into space by the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of the Illuminati, presumably after some kind of enormous rampage. Then, as as Phase Three gets underway, we’ll see an adaptation of the comic book story Planet Hulk for The Incredible Hulk 2, which would see the Hulk conquering the planet Sakaar Gladiator-style, and lead to a World War Hulk adaptation for The Avengers 3 as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes find themselves squaring off against an super-angry Hulk and his army of alien warriors.
While we’re still waiting for that Black Panther movie Latino Review promised us, there could be some truth to the reports about Marvel’s plans for The Hulk, with Kevin Feige previously having stated that: “Planet Hulk is a cool story. World War Hulk is a cool story. Do I think Hulk can carry a movie and be as entertaining as he was in Avengers? I do believe that. I do believe he absolutely could. We certainly are not even going to attempt that until Avengers 2, so there is a lot of time to think about it.”
Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will get underway with the release of Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man on November 6th, 2015, with a Doctor Strange movie expected to follow sometime in 2016.
Originally published February 4, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
