Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk seemingly won’t be in Captain America: Brave New World as Variety is reporting that the actor misspoke at a recent film festival.
On Sunday, February 11, 2024, Ruffalo attended a Q&A event at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. While there, Ruffalo was asked if he was appearing as the Hulk in 2025’s Captain America: Brave New World, to which Ruffalo responded, “Yeah.”
“It’s going to be great!” Ruffalo added.
It appears that Ruffalo misspoke, however, as Variety reports that multiple sources say the actor won’t reprise his role as the Hulk in the forthcoming Captain America movie. Ruffalo was apperently agreeing that Captain America: Brave New World was going to be one of Marvel Studios’ next films, not that he was going to star in it.
Ruffalo’s Hulk (probably) isn’t getting a stand-alone movie
Ruffalo also discussed conversations he’s had with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige about a potential stand-alone Hulk movie.
“[Feige said], ‘What would you like to do?’ And he said, ‘What would you do if you had a stand-alone Hulk movie?’ I said, ‘I’d like to take him from this raging maniac into kind of this integrated character.’ He’s like, ‘Okay, we’ll do that over the course of four movies. We’ll never give you a stand-alone Hulk, let’s just get that’…I don’t mean to burst anyone’s bubble, but that’s not happening.”
Ruffalo reaffirmed that, as far as he knows, there’s been no momentum regarding that conversation and a stand-alone Hulk movie isn’t being planned at this time. “I could talk more about it, but I’ve been told not to,” he added.
The distribution rights regarding a Hulk movie currently belong to Universal Pictures; meaning, if Marvel did move forward with a stand-alone film, it’d either have to be released through Universal or they’d have to cut some sort of deal with the studio. Marvel and Disney are, however, able to use the character in team-ups or other superhero movies, hence the reason why Bruce Banner’s story has been told in projects such as 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron and 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok.
While Ruffalo may not be in Captain America: Brave New World, the movie will star Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson/Captain America, Danny Ramirez as Joaquin Torres/Falcon, Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley, Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns/Leader, Shira Haas as Sabra, Harrison Ford as Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, and Liv Tyler as Betty Ross.
Captain America: Brave New World releases on February 14, 2025 as part of Phase Five of the MCU.
