After 13 years, I’m surprised the MCU avoided a perfect way to break an over-decade-long Hulk streak that arguably needs to end. The MCU timeline has favored some heroes and villains more than others – something that’s impossible to avoid given how many characters have only appeared for a lone movie or show. However, this is also true even when looking at the franchise’s most focal characters, as is the case with the complicated example of the MCU’s Hulk story.

While 2008’s The Incredible Hulk brought the character to the big screen after a not inconsiderable hiatus, the MCU quickly recast the тιтular role, with Mark Ruffalo taking over the Marvel hero casting for the rest of the franchise. From this point, the Hulk’s story has largely been constrained to the sidelines, serving in a supporting role in releases centered around other heroes. This has had a lot of unique side effects on the character’s history, especially regarding Banner’s transformations.

Bruce Banner Last Transformed Into The Hulk On-Screen In The MCU A Long, Long Time Ago

The Hulk has been a key player in the MCU and its overarching story from his debut all the way up to recent history, due to his appearances in not only the Avengers movies but also releases like She-Hulk: Attorney At Law and Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, which have helped to reinforce him as a continuing Marvel hero despite his lack of solo movie or show installments since 2008. However, the Hulk’s more recent appearances have avoided one of the most core parts of the character, avoiding showing him properly transforming on-screen.

While Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame focused on the story aspect of Banner struggling to transform, this ultimately meant they only showed his failed transformations in Infinity War, and then jumped ahead to him being the Smart Hulk without showing the transformation by the time of Endgame‘s main story. Prior to this, the closest we’ve gotten to seeing Banner change into the Hulk recently is Thor: Ragnarok, where Bruce transforms off-screen into the Hulk to fight Fenris, and comes seemingly close to properly transforming due to his frustration with the situation he’s found himself in as well.

All in all, this means the last time we saw Bruce Banner properly transform into the Hulk in the main MCU timeline was actually all the way back in The Avengers, which is wild considering not only how many years have pᴀssed since the 2012 film, but also given how many appearances the Hulk has had in the years since. Indeed, it seems like the franchise has avoided a series of logical places for another proper on-screen Hulk transformation to take place, which makes this odd record for the gamma-radiated hero all the more strange.

Captain America: Brave New World Offered A Perfect Opportunity For A New Transformation For The Hulk After Years

With such a hiatus for the Hulk, it would be par for the course for the MCU to make sure to break the over-a-decade record for the Hulk as soon as it can – especially now it’s been established Banner can transform in and out of his Smart Hulk form as well, meaning this doesn’t preclude the character from this kind of change. Indeed, Captain America: Brave New World seemed like a perfect place for a new Hulk transformation, since it features the return of several characters most tied to the Hulk, and a plot setup that could justify such an event.

Since it was made very clear that Captain America: Brave New World would feature Thunderbolt Ross transforming into the Red Hulk, having Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner finally also transform on-screen – either to fight him or simply to try and rush to Captain America’s aid – would’ve made a lot of sense. Even failing this, it could’ve made a lot of sense for Wilson and Banner to reunite in order to work out how to deal with this threat, which could’ve easily led to another on-screen Hulk transformation in order to work out any potential shared weaknesses between Hulks.

As it stands, though, the full Red Hulk transformation was saved for Captain America: Brave New World‘s ending, and the MCU’s main Hulk was intentionally kept out of the installment despite it having an already Hulk-based narrative. This not only meant the MCU missed another prime opportunity for Banner to break his on-screen Hulk transformation fast, but also that the franchise avoided utilizing the potential for a Red Hulk vs Hulk fight, instead leaving Sam Wilson to pacify Ross’ monstrous form, aided by the then-President’s memories of his daughter and his hopes to prove himself to her.

It Makes Sense Why Captain America: Brave New World Didn’t Feature The Hulk, Even If It Was A Waste

Though Captain America: Brave New World did offer one of the best excuses in more recent history to feature the Hulk and his potential on-screen transformation, the reasons the character was avoided in the release do make sense, reinforcing the idea of what exactly has led to the green heavyweight having not changed on-screen in so long. Brave New World director Julius Onah explained the decision to not feature to Hulk not long after the movie’s release, stating: “you pull in Banner—as great as Mark Ruffalo is and as exciting as it would be to have him—and suddenly, the focus shifts away from Sam.“

Ultimately, the hardest thing about the Hulk’s MCU story is that he’s a character who is hard to not make the focus of whatever story he’s in, as an eight-foot-tall green individual who historically can be found destroying whatever was around him and screaming in an all-out rage isn’t exactly a figure who naturally blends into the background. Given the franchise has avoided giving him more solo stories, balancing having him in a crossover but not taking over is a natural challenge, which goes to explain the decision to exclude him here.

Hopefully, this means the story of Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars can instead finally feature a part of the Hulk’s story that audiences have been waiting to see again for many years now once more, rather than the next flagship films in the MCU only serving to reinforce the idea we for whatever reason cannot see the character transform. However, based on the franchise’s current track record, it’s clear nothing is set in stone, even if there’s plenty of reason to hope for the Hulk to get another heyday in the near future.

Hulk

Created by

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby

First Film

The Incredible Hulk Returns

Latest Film

Avengers: Endgame

First TV Show

The Incredible Hulk

Latest TV Show

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

Cast

Bill Bixby, Lou Ferrigno, Mark Ruffalo

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