How Marvel Retconned 'Age Of Ultron' To Add Hulk To 'Thor: Ragnarok'

Fans who have been following the development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe may remember Marvel [...]

By Jamie Lovett - November 9, 2017 04:55 pm EST

Fans who have been following the development of the Marvel Cinematic Universe may remember Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige being insistent that the studio was not developing a "Planet Hulk" movie, which made it kind of awkward when Thor: Ragnarok turned out to be, more or less, a "Planet Hulk" movie.

Feige finally had his chance to explain what happened when speaking to The Wrap, and the head of Marvel Studios says the fact was Hulk almost didn't make it into Thor: Ragnarok. At the time, those rumors about a "Planet Hulk" movie really were false.

"It turned out to be accurate [but] at the time, it was not accurate because we didn't have any plans to do it and Joss (Whedon) was doing Age of Ultron at that time," Feige explains. "The way it ends as you recall with Hulk in the Quinjet going off, right?"

What Feige is referring to is the last time fans saw the Hulk, flying off in a Quinjet after being hurt by Black Widow. Joss Whedon publically stated that he had planned to show the Hulk leaving Earth and headed into space, but that the studio insisted on him changing the color of the sky from black to blue to avoid giving fans the idea that they were going to do a "Planet Hulk" movie.

"We said, 'Joss, we can't do that because he's not going into space and people are going to think we're doing 'Planet Hulk,'" Feige recalls. "He goes, 'Well, what are you going to do?' We said, 'We don't know.' So, if you go back and look at that shot of the movie, he's in the sky. It's blue sky."

Marvel also changed the Avengers: Age of Ultron script to avoid confusion, removing a line that would have noted that the Hulk had been located passing Saturn.

"So in the movie, it's, 'We lost the signal out by the Caspian Sea,'" Feige says. "Or something like that, it was all earthbound. "

Going Big

Eventually, Marvel Studios decided they wanted to do something different with Thor and considered adding some other Asgardian characters to the movie. Loki would, of course, return and Hela and Valkyrie made it in, but Balder and Beta Ray Bill, who were both considered, didn't feel "big" enough.

"We wanted to do something totally different with Thor," Feige said. "Chris Hemsworth really was like, 'When do other Marvel players come in with me?'

"Definitely, [we] want Hela in the movie. Definitely wanted, of course, the continuing relationship with Loki. We had early ideas for Valkyrie. We were talking about Balder. We were talking about Beta Ray Bill, but, that's not enough. But we were like, 'We need something big.'"

Eventually, Marvel Studios landed on the idea of adding the Hulk and sending Thor to space, and Thor: Ragnarok as we know it began taking shape.

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The Retcon

Bruce Banner Hulk Christmas Present Gift

However, sending Hulk to space meant Feige had to have a somewhat awkward conversation with Joss Whedon.

"Well, what if he did go to space?" Feige said. "We would jokily call it Planet Thor, for a while. I went, 'You know what that means?' They go, 'What?' I go, 'That means Hulk went to space at the end of Ultron.' So, I had to tell Joss. And this was a year after Ultron came out. It was kind of a big thing. We were like, 'You gotta change it, Joss, he's not going to space.' A year after, I go, 'Joss, guess where he's going? He's going to space.'"

It just goes to show that even the people making the Marvel Cinematic Universe happen don't always know what direction its headed in next.

Thor: Ragnarok currently has a 4.18 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating, making it the second most anticipated upcoming comic book movie among ComicBook.com Users.

Let us know how excited you are about Thor: Ragnarok by giving the movie your own personal ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating below.

Thor: Ragnarok opens in theaters on November 2, 2017.

Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include Black Panther on February 16, 2018, Avengers: Infinity War on May 4, 2018, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

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