Avengers: Endgame Almost Had a Scene With Hulk & Bruce Banner Talking for the Soul Stone

The final cut of Avengers: Endgame that hit theaters and made home media release is just over three hours long, making it the longest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That's why it's pretty understandable when one of the filmmakers or producers mentions a killer scene they had to end up leaving on the cutting room floor. One of those scenes that didn't end up making the cut would have been between Bruce Banner and the Hulk inside the Soul Stone, much like we saw with Thanos and Young Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War.

"We did actually write a version, and this existed before The Ancient One scene was slowly beaten out," Endgame scribe Stephen McFeely told Cinemablend in a recent interview. "But there was a version where it was Banner talking to The Hulk… and we never shot it, but it was kind of a cool thing to get them both on screen together interacting."

Coincidentally enough, Banner's transition into Smart Hulk also off-screen. At first, as a matter of fact, Smart Hulk was supposed to be introduced in Avengers: Infinity War, although the studio ended up pushing the character's massive introduction to Endgame. He was always in the works, however, as Endgame visual effects supervisor Dan DeLeeuw previously told us they started screen testing Ruffalo as the hyper-intelligent gamma monster during Thor: Ragnarok.

"Mark was just kind of ad-libbing, trying to type on a computer keyboard and he can't because his fingers are too big and so he gets angry and kicks over a table and knocks over...but it's this funny little gag because it was Banner living in a body that doesn't fit into the world," DeLeeuw recalled of the initial Smart Hulk screen test. "And it was funny because you saw Mark's face and expression so that kind of solidified the idea to push a little bit more Mark into the Hulk, into the design."

Avengers: Endgame is now available wherever movies are sold.

Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, What If…? in Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Marvel Studios Disney+ series without release dates include Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk.

What was your favorite moment of Endgame? Share your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things Marvel!