The Hulk has had an interesting tenure in the MCU, starting as what is basically a totally different character with a totally different actor in the role. The Incredible Hulk was Marvel’s second outing as an independent studio, and while it wasn’t a masterpiece it was enough to help propel the Infinity Saga forward to the 20 movie story that it grew to be. Edward Norton was our first Bruce Banner, but was quickly replaced by Mark Ruffalo by the second time we see the character. The Hulk was one of the original Avengers, and from I can remember his whole, “Hulk smash” thing helped Marvel sell a heck of a lot of movie tickets and toys. What ever happened to that?
Hulk came back for Age of Ultron where he got to go up against Tony Stark in the Hulkbuster, which was pretty cool, but then by the end of the film he got hurled out into space. We got to see him one more time as classic Hulk (and in my opinion his absolute best appearance in the MCU to date) in Thor: Ragnarok before everything got weird. Thor got fat and Hulk became a professor who dabs. Endgame was strange times, man. We’ve seen Bruce Banner/Hulk cameo in a few other projects from the post-credit scene of Shang-Chi to playing a role in She-Hulk.
Looking past some of the questionable decisions in She-Hulk, now where exactly does Marvel go with the character? Well, we probably won’t be getting a solo outing for him anytime soon because there are some legal issues with Universal preventing them from doing so, but with Captain America Brave New World coming at us soon will old school Hulk smash be present? Brave New World is introducing the Red Hulk played by Harrison Ford, so I would think we will also see the original Hulk at some point, and if we do I hope he’s smashing stuff and not drinking tea with a sweater on.
Decades before the MCU, we got a different Hulk. And no, I do not mean Eric Bana. I’m going all the way back to Lou Ferrigno. The actor was the first to play the Hulk and he has a few things to say about the character today. While talking to Who Let Us Out, he let it be known he wants to see the MCU pull their Hulk back in and make him more like the original once again:
“I would say change the concept and make it more like the original Hulk, authentic, organic, mean, green.”
… and I couldn’t agree more. The Hulk is known for smashing, not for calculus. Let’s see more of that. It doesn’t need to be in his own movie, but if Lou Ferrigno even thinks this is what should be done with the Hulk I think it should be taken into pretty serious consideration. Once we get a couple more decades of Hulk smash then Mark Ruffalo can settle down like Ferrigno and do guest appearances on a King of Queens reboot, but as Professor Hulk. Just kidding.
But seriously, I’m not going to suggest how Marvel retracts their steps with this one but I really think some grade A writers need to figure it out ASAP because the Hulk was always one of the MCU’s greatest assets and its time they start utilizing him correctly. Maybe allow the character to move freely between Hulk and Professor Hulk, having Professor Hulk completely take over as the Bruce Banner alter ago, or something like that. It could actually make an interesting plot point for a future movie. I personally still have hope we’re going to see the original Hulk take on Red Hulk at some point in Brave New World, but either way I agree this is something that needs to happen.
Source: Who Let Us Out via The Direct