How Hulk Becomes Smart Hulk In The Marvel Cinematic Universe Revealed

A ton of Marvel characters saw some major transitions in the five year period between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Thor found himself in a serious battle with depression, Hawkeye became a serial killer, and Captain Marvel got a stellar new haircut. However, none of these changes were quite as significant as those experienced by Bruce Banner and the Hulk. While the two used to fight for control over the same body, Banner finally learned how to make them co-exist, resulting in an ultra-intelligent, shirt-wearing version of the Hulk.

Banner explained in Endgame that he sought out a way to make the two entities collide because they both individually lost to Thanos during Infinity War. Hulk lost a physical fight with the Mad Titan at the beginning of the movie, while Bruce lost along with the rest of humanity when the Snap occurred at the end. Bruce thought that by merging the two, they could avoid ever losing again.

According to director Joe Russo, the decision to become one actually went much deeper than that. During a live Q&A with ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis on Monday night, Russo explained the Hulk’s process behind the merger.

“We sat in a room and went, ‘Let’s go one year later. No, no let’s go two. No, four! Five! Let’s make sure we have enough distance that people can change in that time,’” Russo said. “And now you’ve sat with it so long that it’s become part of who you are as a person. It’s not a year later, it’s five years later. Families have started, like Robert [Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark]. This is my long-winded way of getting to the Hulk which is Banner reflects over that five year period about ‘The two of us have been fighting over this host body for years and we lost because we were fighting. It was selfish of us to fight over the host body.’ So the only natural progression forward for someone as intelligent as Banner to resolve the situation is ‘Let’s merge ourselves. Let’s quit fighting over the host body and just merge.’”

It was all about Banner finding a solution to a problem that he’s been experiencing for many years now. After the Snap, he finally had the chance to get it done.

Avengers: Endgame is now playing in theaters.

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