After nearly a decade of unworthy piffle, it looks like everyone’s favorite green savage is finally getting his very own trilogy... well, sort of. During a recent press conference for the largely anticipated Thor: Ragnarok, actor Mark Ruffalo expounded upon the future of The Hulk.
Because of copyright restraints, only Universal Pictures can distribute stand-alone Hulk movies, and at the present they are unwilling to play ball with Marvel, despite the obvious critical and commercial benefits. Even Sony, the Michael Jordan of fucking up franchises, had the wherewithal to do business with the mouse -- and met with considerable success.
Ruffalo has expressed some interest in developing a Hulk solo outing several times in the past (and so has Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn), citing the character’s seminal presence in the franchise as a reason to work around the Universal property rights conundrum. But Ruffalo and Gunn’s campaign never gained much traction. Ruffalo hitherto seemed resigned to the idea that it may never happen, but now Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and company have devised a clever workaround.
Gamestop reports during a recent press event for Thor: Ragnarok, Ruffalo talked about the future of The Hulk; he and Feige plan on carving out a journey for the not-so-jolly green giant in the larger scope of the franchise.
"Kevin asked me to come over and have a script meeting," Ruffalo said. "And basically he sat me down and he said, 'What would you like to do if you had a standalone Hulk movie?' And I said, 'I'd like to do this, this, and this, and this and this, and then this. And then this, and this, and this, and then it would end like this!' And he was like, 'I love that. Let's do that over the next three movies, starting with Thor 3, carry it out through Avengers 3 and Avengers 4.'"
This is the best way of going about things. As a guy that reads comic books with some frequency, I’ve never really been able to enjoy the Hulk on-screen until the Marvel Cinematic Universe, particularly Mark Ruffalo's interpretation. He’s a hero that doesn’t really work on his own. The “poetry” of his character is so tired and obvious his stories can’t help but mimic each other. There are exceptions of course, but those runs usually work as sort of parodies of conventional Hulk stories. He’s lonely, he’s tormented, we get it, its boring.
Feige seems to disagree, claiming a Hulk standalone film in the MCU just needs time. I don't necessarily disagree, but it would have to deviate considerably from any of Hulk's previous cinematic outings. Gunn would be an exceptional choice to helm a galactic romp with the Hulk at its center, maybe even an adapion of World War Hulk; after all, there have been some rumblings.
Do you have any interest in a solo Hulk movie? Let us know in the comments.
