The Avengers star Mark Ruffalo reveals that expense is one of the main reasons why a new Hulk movie may not happen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon.
“I’d love to do a standalone Hulk, I just don’t think that’s ever going to happen,” Ruffalo said in an interview with GQ. “It’s very expensive if you did a whole movie, which is why they use the Hulk so sparingly. I priced myself out!”
Ruffalo’s most recent appearance as Bruce Banner/The Hulk was in Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law in 2022. The series carried an eye-opening expense of $25 million per episode due to the high cost of the titular character’s motion capture VFX and suffered production issues due to “half-baked scripts”. Star Tatiana Maslany believes the series may not get a second season as a result of the cost overruns.
As Marvel Studios pivots to a quality-over-quantity approach to future releases, Ruffalo believes the changes could help the MCU return to the glory days of the Infinity Saga. “I think the expansion into streaming was really exciting, but the thing about Marvel movies is you had to wait three years and that created a mystique,” Ruffalo said. “These corrections could be really positive things. Will it be what it was? I don’t know.”
The Hulk’s box office struggles
Previous stand-alone Hulk movies have been met with mixed results. Ang Lee’s Hulk in 2003 polarized critics and audiences while underperforming to studio expectations. Additionally, the MCU’s The Incredible Hulk in 2008 was a box office hit despite mixed reviews as well as production conflicts between Marvel and star Edward Norton. Since Ruffalo’s MCU debut in 2012’s The Avengers, the Hulk has regularly been utilized as a supporting player. While a new Hulk movie might not hit cinemas in the immediate future, Marvel boss Kevin Feige says he still has big plans for the Hulk.
“Many years ago, Mark came in for a meeting with us at Marvel Studios to discuss ways in which the Hulk could grow and evolve in upcoming films,” Feige said. “He pitched a lot of cool ideas, some of which led to what you saw in Thor: Ragnarok, Infinity War, and Endgame, and some of which would still be cool to see someday.”
