With more and more information about Thor: Ragnarok coming out as Marvel gets closer to the end of pre-production for the movie, I’m starting to hear an increase in rumors about what will happen in the movie. But concerning the rumors involving Bruce Banner’s role, I’m not quite sure I agree with them.
I’m particularly talking about the rumor that Ragnarok will begin with Loki and Hela (which is one of the main guesses for who Cate Blanchett will play) banishing Thor from Asgard onto a gladiator planet where he will be forced to shave his head and fight other aliens until he finally faces the Hulk. Of course anyone who is familiar with The Incredible Hulk comics will know that this is a reference to the Planet Hulk arc, where Hulk is exiled from Earth and be sent to an uninhabited planet only for him to accidentally wind up on a planet called Sakaar where he is forced to fight for his life in an arena.
First of all, Marvel has no plans at all for a Planet Hulk movie, second, a Planet Hulk tie-in/lead in isn’t exactly a new rumor here, especially after the somewhat ambiguous ending to Bruce Banner’s character arc in Avengers: Age of Ultron where he leaves the team in the quinjet off to an unknown location. Right before Age of Ultron came out a rumor started spreading that Hulk would be launched into space and that he would make an appearance in the Guardians of the Galaxy which would end up with him on Sakaar. But Joss Whedon, the director of Age of Ultron admitted afterwards that he was forced to change the last shot of Hulk to show just the sky and not stars so as not to lead people into thinking that Hulk was headed for space and leading into Planet Hulk. Not long afterwards James Gunn, the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, also denied the rumor of a Hulk appearance.
I also don’t see them making a Planet Hulk movie since it would be expensive and would have to be nearly entirely CGI. Considering that the last two Hulk movies didn’t do well, I don’t see Marvel taking that risk. Not to mention that a Hulk movie solely about Hulk and not Banner would be VERY hard to pull off onscreen. Mark Ruffalo’s a fantastic actor and part of what makes him a great Hulk is that he does a great Banner too. It would be a waste to have him star in a Hulk movie but not let him play Banner for a few minutes.
It’s also important to remember that the events of Planet Hulk were based on several factors that are nonexistent in the MCU. For example Planet Hulk requires a much more intelligent Hulk than what we’ve seen so far on screen. Granted, Hulk’s decision at the end of Age of Ultron to cut communications with Black Widows and pilot the quinjet by himself starts to show the type of intelligence expected for this, but that intelligence came largely out of nowhere. We’d need to see an explanation or exploration of how Banner and Hulk’s relationship has changed for this to happen.
Another factor is the existence of the Illuminati, the group that makes the choice to shoot Hulk into space in the comics, and a group that doesn’t exist in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This is an important factor as Hulk’s anger toward them sets in motion his revenge quest in the World War Hulk arc which directly follows Planet Hulk.
We don’t know how Hulk will end up with Thor in his movie since as last we saw, he was still on Earth. This means that overall, very few things are coming together to allow Planet Hulk to happen. It’s possible those questions may be answered in Thor: Ragnarok, but with no plans for Hulk movie of any kind I think it’s safe to say that we’d have to wait until at least after Infinity Wars to get an idea of what they plan to do with the Hulk.
Meta Rants and Purple Pants 