The Hulk is one of Marvel's most popular characters.
So it's no surprise the company turned to the big green guy when it came time to launch
the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008.
Hulk laid low for four years after his debut, and was the breakout hit of The Avengers...so
why haven't we seen more of the big green guy?
Here are a few reasons why Marvel won't give Hulk another movie.
A history of flops
Because the Hulk is such an iconic character, the pressure was on in 2003 for Ang Lee's
Hulk film, which starred Eric Bana as Bruce Banner.
The movie wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either, earning lukewarm ratings across the
board.
And it definitely wasn't good enough to warrant a sequel.
Fast forward five years, and the fledgeling Marvel Studios was looking to take advantage
of two of the major characters still under their control to anchor new film franchises:
Iron Man and the Hulk.
Iron Man hit first, and thanks to the charisma of Robert Downey, Jr., it hit big.
The Incredible Hulk was the second film on the slate, debuting a few months after Iron
Man, and it was… not as good.
The film received decent reviews and was a so-so performer at the box office, but compared
to the coolness and profitability of Iron Man, Hulk just didn't hold up.
When it came time to choose which character to pursue, Hulk got smashed.
" Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep."
A cancelled sequel
Marvel was already planning another Hulk film pretty early on, but with the popularity of
Marvel's other characters, the project was shelved.
Edward Norton was eventually axed and recast with Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers.
In a 2008 interview with GamesRadar, Ed Norton spilled the beans on why The Incredible Hulk
felt unfinished, saying,
"We left a lot out on purpose.
It's definitely intended as a chapter one.
My attitude was, 'Let's start with a mystery and slowly unpeel what the roots of it are,
all the way through—like let's have revelations even in the third act about what set this
whole thing in motion.'"
Unfortunately, those plans never materialized for Norton, but a similar strategy has been
planned for Mark Ruffalo's Hulk.
Ruffalo told Yahoo!
Movies that Hulk will be getting his due over the next few years, saying,
"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."
A full schedule
Between sequels and originals, Marvel Studios has cranked out a mind-boggling 14 movies
over the last eight years, but they're still just getting started.
They already have at least six movies currently shooting or at some stage in production, including
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Black Panther, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Even if Marvel wanted to make a new Hulk film, it would be at least four years before they
could even fit it in the schedule.
Considering just about every Marvel movie is a hit, and they have to keep the fun train
rolling by introducing new characters, it's hard to make space for a guy who already had
two shots at solo glory.
Hulk isn't cheap
Making a movie where the main character can turn into a giant green monster isn't easy,
and neither is finding a way to fit all that effects work into the budget.
Sure, you can keep him in Bruce Banner mode for a lot of the time, but then viewers will
just bide their time waiting for him to Hulk out.
If the budget differences aren't obvious, 2008's The Incredible Hulk cost $10 million
more to make than Iron Man, and Hulk didn't even need to have any fancy armor fabricated.
The Avengers earned an Academy Award nomination in the "Visual Effects" category, so the expectations
to make a Hulk that doesn't look like a "ticked-off Shrek", as one reviewer called Ang Lee's Hulk,
are very high.
And very costly.
Hulk is better on a team
Though the Hulk left the Avengers after his first adventure with them in the comics, he
just works better when he's surrounded by other characters.
That's not to say that the story of Bruce Banner isn't compelling, but we've already
had two attempts to dig into it with minimal success.
There's also the fact that the Hulk is basically a force of nature, and it's hard to give him
a bad guy that he can't just smash into bits… or rip in half.
But in the Avengers films, ultra-powerful bad guys are standard, so the heroic Hulk
can still seem like an underdog when the battle royale kicks off.
Hulk's inner struggle
The Hulk is a great character, but when you translate him from page to screen, it's not
easy to tell a compelling Hulk story.
Why?
His biggest struggle is within himself, and that's not an easy thing to showcase in a
medium that typically relies on explosions instead of thought bubbles.
Some of the best Hulk stories are character studies, and that doesn't usually fit into
a successful superhero film.
We can't have sad, walking-away piano music all of the time…
...but it's a huge part of the character.
Distribution rights
In addition to all the reasons we've already listed, there's also been a lot of confusion
surrounding the film rights to a Hulk sequel.
According to a Collider interview with Mark Ruffalo,
"Marvel doesn't really have the rights to that yet.
That's still Universal's property, so there's that issue.
That's a big impediment to moving forward with that."
Ruffalo was kind of right, but the situation is a bit more complicated.
Universal apparently does have right of first refusal to distribute a new Hulk film, which
could create some problems, but it's not a big enough roadblock to keep Marvel from making
the movie.
They famously cut a deal with Sony to share Spider-Man, and the process is still pretty
complicated — but certainly far from impossible.
Hulk gets pretty weird
Hulk dates back to the 1960s, during the glory days of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
If you've ever read any of Hulk's early appearances, you know they can get a little strange, which
makes a truly authentic Hulk a little harder to pull off on the big screen.
"Captain America fighting Nazis" is a relatable selling point for a film, but Hulk dressed
as a clown, juggling elephants, or being assaulted in a YMCA shower might end up being a bit
more complicated for the multiplex.
Even later stories like the fan-favorite World War Hulk, which is reportedly being incorporated
to some extent into Thor: Ragnarok, and the time-hopping Indestructible Hulk: Agent of
S.H.I.E.L.D. could be a big ask of typical mainstream audiences.
Honestly, though….
This was weird enough.
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