(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Avengers: Endgame!)
One of Avengers: Endgame’s most unique characters is Smart Hulk, a combination of the Incredible Hulk and Bruce Banner. He pops up just as the group is starting to put together its time travel plan. But the writers behind both that film and Infinity War recently explained that the character originally had plans to debut sooner.
GameSpot took a listen to Avengers: Endgame’s commentary with its Digital HD arrival yesterday. In it, co-screenwriter Steve McFeely explained that Smart Hulk was originally set to arrive at the end of Infinity War, during the battle in Wakanda.
“We called him Smart Hulk throughout the shoot,” he explained. “The creation of Smart Hulk, used to take place in Infinity War. He was fighting in Wakanda. The whole arc of the story was Banner and Hulk were not getting along. Hulk wouldn’t come out to help him. And at his hour of greatest need, they make some sort of compromise, and Smart Hulk rips out of the (Iron Man) armor and beats the crap out of Cull Obsidian and destroys him. It was pretty clear the movie could not handle this weird success. The movie needed to just stay in its succession of losses in the third act, which meant some hustling on the part of VFX late in the game.”
“Cutting that out was a decision made during the editing process on Infinity War, by which point we had already shot Endgame,” added co-screenwriter Chris Markus. The original footage had made its way to test audiences, but left some confusing reactions. In addition, McFeely explained that complications arose when Black Widow’s character showed up.
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“Imagine before Thanos shows up, we had a scene where Hulk comes out of the bushes, and Natasha says, ‘Hey, big guy, sun’s getting low.’ And (Hulk) says, ‘Oh, Natasha, that’s not…we don’t need that now,’” he said. “And speaks in perfect English, and you’re supposed to be kind of delighted and jarred by it, and then they’re all gonna get dusted. It was just tonally off.
“The Snap worked out for him in a way, right? He is his best self. He is sort of the last remaining superhero. Many [fans] want to take pictures with him in the diner. For most other people, I guess Tony aside, it didn’t work out…I think the core conflict of who Banner is, is that there are two characters fighting over a host body, and they hate each other, and that’s been the story with him for years. At some point, Banner, who’s an intelligent human being, decides, ‘What if we put the hate aside, and we try to resolve this in a way that is holistic?’ And he merges the two of them.”
The introduction of Smart Hulk in Avengers: Endgame worked out pretty well the way it did. But do you believe he would’ve made a better impact in Infinity War? Let us know in the comments below!
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