Mark Ruffalo Thinks "Planet Hulk" Won’t Work For Solo Film

[Crimson Knight]

Planet Hulk would never work until after years of cosmic set movies accustoming people to that feel and tone to the Marvel universe. Because quite frankly, at this point, inventing something to shoot Hulk into space that ends up taking him through a wormhole to an alien planet would be a plot contrivance where its just as easy to invent something that through plot induced stupidity can kill the Hulk even though we've been told he's unkillable.

The other reason Planet Hulk wouldn't work at this point is because if you look at the tone and themes of the Marvel movies thus far, if Hulk did become a menace to humanity and kill a lot of innocents, the first thing to come into the characters' minds is not going to be 'oh let's exile Hulk into space that we only just figured out is populated.' It would be a far more organic fit for them to build a conflict around the characters taking opposing stances as to whether or not to kill the Hulk, recognizing that Banner is not in control of himself and a victim of the Hulk in his own way, and others prioritizing the needs of the many over the needs of their friend. Similarly, the first real look we're going to have at cosmic Marvel is Guardians of the Galaxy. Despite the odd assortment of creatures we've already seen in the trailer, we've also seen that there are a lot of humans out there in space, they're creating a very 'human relate-able' feel to cosmic Marvel, and we're supposed to feel like the 12 billion innocents Glenn Close is talking about needing the Guardians to protect are people we can feel for and relate to and actually worry about what happens to them. Then jumping from that feel of 'space people are people to' and building an entire premise around 'Hulk is a threat to innocent life, so let's exile him to space despite all the other innocent life out there he can rampage through' - it doesn't work. The natural conflict around a homicidal Hulk, in THIS incarnation of the Marvel U is whether or not to eliminate the threat for good, not turn him into a John Carter of Mars character type.

Reading your post, I'm feeling like there could be a good Avengers Vs The Hulk film somewhere down the line, like the battle I remember them having early into The Avengers comic, or their battle in the 1st Ultimate Avengers film. Wouldn't necessarily need another antagonist in order to make it work, but someone, or some group, other than Steve and co, could work.

I will say though, if I remember Planet Hulk, or the prologue, correctly, the remaining Illuminati are sending the Hulk to a planet without life, intelligent wise, y'know, like aliens and stuff, but with lush vegetation and game. So, though it didn't end up that way, due to the Hulk striving against it, or because of the wormhole mentioned, which I'm not sure was there, or vaguely remember, it wasn't really the intention to endanger alien life, or, whatever about game, to throw aside them getting hurt mattering.

Wouldn't have to be like that in an adaptation, though I can understand that some would consider them a bit naive, or short sighted, to think that Bruce, or the Hulk, wouldn't manage a way out of the ship he was sent on.

[lancerman]

In the first Avengers film we had a wormhole that was sending thousands of alien troops to Earth. I think the audience can accept Tony and Shield building a device using that technology.

As for the rest all you have to do is create a situation where everyone fears and is against Hulk, which is easy to do because of the nature of the character and the way governments in the films have reacted to him. And then you just have to make the Avengers unwilling to straight up kill their friend, and get Shield to go along with a compromise of an exhile.

[Kevinroc]

Downey, when his career was in the toilet, was still a bigger name than Ruffalo who most people don't know. There aren't a huge contingent of people who are going to see the trailer for the new Hulk movie (if there is one) and will say "oh man I really can't wait to see the new Ruffalo film. hat doesn't exist. Put it this way, people knew who Downey was when Iron Man came out, most people still don't know Ruffalo.

And I thought Ruffalo was good, but the point is that every Hulk movie that placed a huge emphasis on Banner got criticized for being boring and they weren't successful, the one Ruffalo was in, where their was very little Banner and Hulk's role was maximized and the downtime was drowned out by other heroes fighting was the film that got everyone to say "wow Hulk's awesome".

So by that logic if you have a story where Hulk is in Hulk mode for most of the movie, and it makes sense that he is, it's kind of a no brainer. You're talking about movies that are primarily aimed at kids who want to see "Hulk smash" not "Banner brood" for 2/3rds of the film.

And don't think I don't get that the Banner/Hulk dynamic is a huge part of the mythology. I know, I read comics to, I like those comics. But people don't watch those movies to see a character study of Bruce Banner, which was what the last two Hulk films were.

Yeah, Downey is a bigger name than Ruffalo. But he wasn't exactly Hollywood's premiere leading man like he is now. It was the overall package with Iron Man that got people to watch. And Ruffalo's not a complete unknown these days. ("Now You See Me" did pretty well.)

It feels like you're making a leap in logic that having more Hulk would instantly translate to a better movie. That isn't automatically true. And regardless of your personal thoughts on the subject, Marvel wants to have more Ruffalo in whatever their next Hulk project is. They've made that abundantly clear. What they'll need to do is rethink elements of the Banner/Hulk relationship.

(I'm surprised we haven't had a movie where they physically split up and fight each other.)

[simbob4000]

Planet Hulk would never work until after years of cosmic set movies accustoming people to that feel and tone to the Marvel universe. Because quite frankly, at this point, inventing something to shoot Hulk into space that ends up taking him through a wormhole to an alien planet would be a plot contrivance where its just as easy to invent something that through plot induced stupidity can kill the Hulk even though we've been told he's unkillable.

The other reason Planet Hulk wouldn't work at this point is because if you look at the tone and themes of the Marvel movies thus far, if Hulk did become a menace to humanity and kill a lot of innocents, the first thing to come into the characters' minds is not going to be 'oh let's exile Hulk into space that we only just figured out is populated.' It would be a far more organic fit for them to build a conflict around the characters taking opposing stances as to whether or not to kill the Hulk, recognizing that Banner is not in control of himself and a victim of the Hulk in his own way, and others prioritizing the needs of the many over the needs of their friend. Similarly, the first real look we're going to have at cosmic Marvel is Guardians of the Galaxy. Despite the odd assortment of creatures we've already seen in the trailer, we've also seen that there are a lot of humans out there in space, they're creating a very 'human relate-able' feel to cosmic Marvel, and we're supposed to feel like the 12 billion innocents Glenn Close is talking about needing the Guardians to protect are people we can feel for and relate to and actually worry about what happens to them. Then jumping from that feel of 'space people are people too' and building an entire premise around 'Hulk is a threat to innocent life, so let's exile him to space despite all the other innocent life out there he can rampage through' - it doesn't work. The natural conflict around a homicidal Hulk, in THIS incarnation of the Marvel U is whether or not to eliminate the threat for good, not turn him into a John Carter of Mars character type.

They've already gone through a wormhole, they've already fought aliens, Thor is a space alien god, the next Marvel movie is all about space stuff...so why do you think we need years more of it before they could do something like Planet Hulk? We've already had years of Marvel space stuff in the movies.

[lancerman]

Yeah, Downey is a bigger name than Ruffalo. But he wasn't exactly Hollywood's premiere leading man like he is now. It was the overall package with Iron Man that got people to watch. And Ruffalo's not a complete unknown these days. ("Now You See Me" did pretty well.)

It feels like you're making a leap in logic that having more Hulk would instantly translate to a better movie. That isn't automatically true. And regardless of your personal thoughts on the subject, Marvel wants to have more Ruffalo in whatever their next Hulk project is. They've made that abundantly clear. What they'll need to do is rethink elements of the Banner/Hulk relationship.

(I'm surprised we haven't had a movie where they physically split up and fight each other.)

Downey wasn't but the thing was, to buy into the first Iron Man movie, they really needed to et the audience to buy into Downey's portrayal of Tony Stark. That falls apart there is no franchise. And again, Downey had interest around him when he was down and out. More so than Ruffalo has ever had. I mean you bring up "Now You See Me", there are atleast four actors in that film with a higher profile who were selling that movie. It's like saying Avengers did good with Ruffalo when before him were talents like Downey, Evans, Renner, Scarjo, Jackson.

My point with that merely is, it's kind of silly to say that Ruffalo of all people is so important that they need to bend the franchise around to incorporate more of him.

And I disagree that it's a leap in logic to have more Hulk. They tried it twice and it didn't work. They got virtually the same reaction and the same complaints. So why are we trying it a third time? Because they like the actor? Because he's so much better than Norton and Bana?

And I don't get why you're trying to spin this as my personal opinion, as if the other Hulk films didn't get complaints for being to much drama and character work and not enough action. There's a reason why despite the overwhelmingly huge response Marvel got with Hulk in the Avengers that they didn't immediately greenlight a Hulk film even 2 years later. They didn't like the results of their last two tries. And again I don't personally care about Marvel's personal thoughts on Ruffalo, I'm sure he could do a good job. Bana did a good job. Norton did a good job. The films just weren't what people wanted. And that's what Marvel should concern themselves with over really liking an actor.

[Kevinroc]

Downey wasn't but the thing was, to buy into the first Iron Man movie, they really needed to et the audience to buy into Downey's portrayal of Tony Stark. That falls apart there is no franchise. And again, Downey had interest around him when he was down and out. More so than Ruffalo has ever had. I mean you bring up "Now You See Me", there are atleast four actors in that film with a higher profile who were selling that movie. It's like saying Avengers did good with Ruffalo when before him were talents like Downey, Evans, Renner, Scarjo, Jackson.

My point with that merely is, it's kind of silly to say that Ruffalo of all people is so important that they need to bend the franchise around to incorporate more of him.

And I disagree that it's a leap in logic to have more Hulk. They tried it twice and it didn't work. They got virtually the same reaction and the same complaints. So why are we trying it a third time? Because they like the actor? Because he's so much better than Norton and Bana?

And I don't get why you're trying to spin this as my personal opinion, as if the other Hulk films didn't get complaints for being to much drama and character work and not enough action. There's a reason why despite the overwhelmingly huge response Marvel got with Hulk in the Avengers that they didn't immediately greenlight a Hulk film even 2 years later. They didn't like the results of their last two tries. And again I don't personally care about Marvel's personal thoughts on Ruffalo, I'm sure he could do a good job. Bana did a good job. Norton did a good job. The films just weren't what people wanted. And that's what Marvel should concern themselves with over really liking an actor.

Ruffalo got second billing on "Now You See Me." Only Jesse "Lex Luthor" Eisenberg got higher billing. (Somehow Ruffalo also got third highest billing in Avengers. Behind only Downey and Evans. I didn't realize that until I checked that just now.)

So your assessment that nobody knows who Ruffalo is seems false.

I get that you want a more action-oriented Hulk movie, and I don't see anything wrong with you having that opinion. But your continued claims that "they tried to make more Banner fueled Hulk movies twice and they failed" doesn't quite tell the whole story. They're still trying to take the tone of the Bixby/Ferrigno TV series and turn it into a movie.

[simbob4000]

I'm sure most people don't even remember Now You See Me as being a movie, I know I sure as hell didn't.

[lancerman]

Ruffalo got second billing on "Now You See Me." Only Jesse "Lex Luthor" Eisenberg got higher billing. (Somehow Ruffalo also got third highest billing in Avengers. Behind only Downey and Evans. I didn't realize that until I checked that just now.)

So your assessment that nobody knows who Ruffalo is seems false.

I get that you want a more action-oriented Hulk movie, and I don't see anything wrong with you having that opinion. But your continued claims that "they tried to make more Banner fueled Hulk movies twice and they failed" doesn't quite tell the whole story. They're still trying to take the tone of the Bixby/Ferrigno TV series and turn it into a movie.

Use common sense, do more people know Michael Caine or Ruffalo, Freeman or Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson or Ruffalo? Billing typically goes by the role you had in the film.

Whose more well know from the Avengers, Robert Downey Jr or Ruffalo, Samuel Jackson or Ruffalo, Chris Evans or Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner or Ruffalo, Scarlet Johanssen or Ruffalo.

I'm not saying he's bad or anything. He just hasn't done enough or is a big enough name for Marvel to make decisions based off him like you seem to think they will. He was essentially a fill in because Norton pissed everyone off.

And again I get what they've been trying to do with a Hulk movie. But it hasn't worked twice.

[Kevinroc]

Use common sense, do more people know Michael Caine or Ruffalo, Freeman or Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson or Ruffalo? Billing typically goes by the role you had in the film.

Whose more well know from the Avengers, Robert Downey Jr or Ruffalo, Samuel Jackson or Ruffalo, Chris Evans or Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner or Ruffalo, Scarlet Johanssen or Ruffalo.

I'm not saying he's bad or anything. He just hasn't done enough or is a big enough name for Marvel to make decisions based off him like you seem to think they will. He was essentially a fill in because Norton pissed everyone off.

And again I get what they've been trying to do with a Hulk movie. But it hasn't worked twice.

You're essentially just repeating yourself now. "Nobody knows who Ruffalo is," (despite him getting high billing in several films that did will.) You try to downplay this fact so you can argue that we need a more action-oriented Hulk in order to have a successful Hulk movie, but that doesn't exactly work.

And your keeper is "they did films that focused on Banner, and they didn't work." (Mostly because you're just repeating yourself over and over. We've gotten the message how terrible you think the other Hulk films have been.)

But if we're gonna see a new Hulk movie, we'll also need the supporting cast. We'll need a General Ross. We'll need a Betty. Maybe we can finally have Rick Jones. Maybe bring in Amadeus Cho? Or Jim Wilson? Maybe have Jen Walters show up? Should we just have Hulk smashing a city for two hours, or should we get Betty, and Rick, and Jen involved? I get wanting a more traditional action movie with tons of smashing, but there's a lot more we need for a Hulk movie.

[cadet]

The hulk has multiple personalities in the comics beyond human Banner vs Hulk Smash! I don't see why Marvel can't use something like grey hulk or merged hulk to get around the issue of banner being afraid to turn or the only transformation available is rampant destruction. (To avoid the hulk is a glorified werewolf comparison)

[rockingmoses]

Why are people assuming that Planet Hulk has to be the Hulk being exiled by Shield/Avengers?
He could be saving Earth by jumping into a wormhole or something like that.

That said, I would rather have them exploring Gray in Vegas. Doesn't really feel very Marvel though.

[Zero Hunter]

Instead of the Vegas era I would go for the stuff before that with Banner trying to chase down rogue gamma weapons with the Leader pulling his strings. Still the Grey Hulk but a much more angry and cunning than he was when he was Joe Fixit even though they were the same character.