Why Marvel Included Hulk In ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ Revealed

Most Marvel fans would agree that the inclusion of the Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok one was a welcome decision by Marvel Studios, but not an entirely intuitive one. After all, Hulk’s role brings a lot of influence from the popular “Planet Hulk” storyline, which Thor had no role in.

But it turns out that the influence of “Planet Hulk” was present in Thor: Ragnarok even before the Hulk himself was.

“It was a very early idea,” executive producer Brad Winderbaum said during a press visit to the Thor: Ragnarok set in Australia. “In the earliest development of Thor, we were looking at ‘Planet Hulk’ as inspiration, maybe not even to integrate the Hulk into the franchise, but the idea of a planet where there are gladiatorial games as being Thor’s predicament. It really was a cool idea to us.”

Eventually, this led Winderbaum and the rest of the Thor: Ragnarok team to wonder, “Why not include the Hulk?”

“When it looked like it was going that way, it was a no brainer,” Winderbaum says. “It started off as like, ‘Hulk in there too? He’s there.’ And then as soon as that sparked, it ignited kind of an idea machine and suddenly he was married to the plot.”

The decision to bring the Hulk into Thor: Ragnarok seems to have worked out well for Marvel Studios as playing up the Thor vs. Hulk angle helped propel Thor: Ragnarok to the top of this summer’s social media buzz.

The rivalry between Thor and the Hulk will also spill over into a brand new Marvel Comics digital-first comic book series titled, appropriately enough, Thor vs. Hulk.

Thor: Ragnarok currently has a 4.17 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating, making it the third most anticipated upcoming comic book movie among ComicBook.com readers. Let us know how excited you are for Thor: Ragnarok by giving the movie your own personal ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating below.

Thor: Ragnarok opens in theaters on November 3, 2017.