Mark Ruffalo Reignites ‘Planet Hulk’ Rumors With Interest To See Story Explored

Apr 11, 2015

During the recent press junket for Avengers Age of Ultron, IGN was able to ask some questions concerning the future of a solo Hulk film to Mark Ruffalo who brought up the possibility of a Planet Hulk movie. This is the first time the actor has brought-up the story or his interest to see it used in the films. We can also assume from Ruffalo’s wording of “talk” and not “rumors” that the studio might be the ones discussing it.

Mark Ruffalo: “I think there’s a lot of places to go with him [Hulk].”

Scarlett Johansson: “Like where?”

IGN: “Space?”

Ruffalo: “Well he’s going to space. Yeah, I mean there’s some talk of maybe Planet Hulk.”

IGN: “Would you like to see that?”

Ruffalo: “I’d be completely interested in entertaining that.

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Mark Ruffalo is already doing the bulk of the motion capture work for Hulk, and after films like Dawn of The Planet of The Apes seeing a Hulk-focused film like Planet Hulk isn’t hard to imagine as it would have like five years ago. There’s obviously a reason that Andy Serkis‘ company got involved with the Marvel films for Age of Ultron, they want Hulk to become just as compelling as the other characters.

Our very good friend El Mayimbe from Latino Review has been talking about Marvel’s plans for a Planet Hulk film since early 2013, you might remember his infamous Super Bowl scoop video.

 

Of course, at the time it didn’t pan-out and we know from previous Marvel history when their future plans get leaked they tend to put them on the back-burner or flat out deny. Kevin Feige also downplayed talk of a Captain Marvel film over the summer only to announce it in October, they have a bit more of a chip on their shoulders and pretty much can make any film they want within reason.

Also, Marvel has held-off on spin-offs only to fold them into other film projects. We’ve seen that happen with their Nick Fury vs SHIELD movie which was thrown into the mix for Winter Soldier. There is even some suspicion that Black Widow‘s solo movie was given the axe so it’s material could beef-up both Age of Ultron and Civil War giving her a larger role in the films. I wouldn’t be shocked if that purposed solo War Machine movie get’s gobbled-up for the sake of Civil War too.

If Hulk has a large role to play in Avengers Infinity War this seems like the biggest reason to include the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk stories into the MCU, the two-part also leads me to believe this could be a possibility spreading the two Hulk stories into each Infinity War installment. They’ll already have him in space so exploring a version of that comic is hard to see them not considering.

Kevin Feige during the Phase Three event in October did reiterate that both Black Widow and Hulk would be very important supporting characters.

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It’s hard to ignore all the Easter Eggs teasing Hulk’s eventual cosmic exile when Avengers Infinity War is on the horizon, which gives Marvel a perfect excuse to send Hulk into space. We’ve even seen concept art from Thor: The Dark World (used in header image above) that used the rock alien Korg, who appeared in the film.

Another piece of Dark World artwork that was unused from concept artist Josh Nizzi was of Hulk’s alien wife Caiera The Old Strong (seen in header image), who is murdered and sparks his invasion of Earth in World War Hulk, something I could totally see being apart of Infinity War. Caiera starts-off as the personal bodyguard to the villainous Red King but eventually works with Hulk and the two fall in love ruling Sakaar as the new king and queen.

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She eventually gives birth to their son Skaar, something Ruffalo’s Banner hints to be impossible in Avengers.

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The alien race Krylorian that shows-up in Guardians of The Galaxy, seems oddly similar to the Sakaar ‘Imperial’ race. The Collector’s enslaved assistant Carnia, Peter Quill’s girlfriend Bereet and the wife of John C. Reilly’s Rhomann Dey were Krylorian. They didn’t have to make Carina a Krylorian, mainly because in the comics she’s the daughter of the Collector and love interest/partner of villain Korvac becoming a huge cosmic threat herself, there was intention there to setup Carina as a Krylorian and alien race itself.

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An Imperial that has direct connections to Hulk is Elloe Kaifi, who loses her high-ranking status once her father speaks-out against the The Red King and is placed into the same gladiator ring as Hulk. The family name Kaifi is represented in concept art from The Dark World as seen above. I wouldn’t be entirely shocked to see the Kaifi’s are now Krylorian in the MCU, this would sort of explain the altering of Carina’s origin and give the aliens a better sounding name.

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The Sakaaran replaced the Badoon as the villainous horde in Guardians, this alien race actually resides on Sakaar a direct MCU connection to Planet Hulk, like Xandar many different alien races live there.

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We’ve all assumed the return of The Red Skull after he was transported to an unknown place at the end of The First Avenger. My theory suggests that he could have been sent to Sakaar by the cosmic cube and has spent the last eighty plus years ruling the planet with an iron-fist as the Red King, a fitting new title for the villain who is hellbent on world domination. This could also be a way to include him into the events of Infinity War and reunite him with his nemesis Captain America, or his replacement Bucky Barnes aka Winter Soldier.

Do you think a Planet Hulk movie is on the way or will it fold into the two-part Avengers Infinity War saga?

SOURCE: IGN

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