Mark Ruffalo said a stand-alone film for his superhero character as Hulk is not going to happen. His statement came after several reports claimed that Dr. Bruce Banner might get his feature film anytime soon. “I want to just make one thing perfectly clear today: A stand-alone ‘Hulk’ movie will never happen,” he said at the D23 Expo on Sunday.
Actor explains why a 'Hulk' film is impossible
Speaking to the press, the American actor-filmmaker said Universal Studios owns the rights to "Hulk" stand-alone movie. Ruffalo, however, said that the film studio "don't know how to play well with Marvel" which created the superhero character.
"And they don’t want to make money," he added.
According to The Huffington Post, Marvel was given the control over licenses related to the said "Avengers" character after Universal Studios has decided not to produce a follow-up for "Hulk" and "The Incredible Hulk" movies which were released in 2003 and 2008, respectively.
Since then, the character-usage rights returned to Marvel. However, Universal Studios still has the final decision whether or not it will distribute a Marvel creation.
The first "Hulk" film featured Eric Bana as Dr. Bruce Banner. He was joined by Jennifer Connelly as Betty Ross, Sam Eliott as General Thunderbolt Ross, Josh Lucas as Major Glenn Talbot, and Nick Nolte as Dr. David Banner.
Meanwhile, Edward Norton earned the superhero role for "The Incredible Hulk" where he starred with Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, and William Hurt.
Ruffalo as Hulk in Marvel series
The 49-year-old actor was first featured as Dr. Bruce Banner or Hulk in the post-credit scenes of "The Avengers" and "Iron Man 3" in 2012 and 2013, respectively.
His character returned in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and "Team Thor: Civil War - While You Were Fighting."
Ruffalo will reprise his role as Dr. Bruce Banner or Hulk in upcoming films "Thor: Ragnarok," "Avengers: Infinity War" and another "Avengers" film in 2019.
When asked about "Thor: Ragnarok" which is slated to hit the cinemas on November 3, the actor hinted at the possibility of a sad ending for the superhero characters.
Ruffalo went on and talked about "Avengers: Infinity War" wherein he said, "everybody dies."
“Not everybody - no. Is that - can we rewind that part? Am I in trouble? Is Barry going to be mad at me?” he asked after his co-actor Don Cheadle stopped him from spilling the beans.
"Avengers: Infinity War" will be released on May 4, 2018.
