Hulk had one of the most tumultuous journeys through the story of the Infinity Saga. Bruce Banner started as a man with a monster inside of him. He learned to control the monster up until the monster took complete control. Then the monster went away when he was needed most. In the end, Banner and the Hulk learned to be a single being and they did in time to undo the damage wrought by Thanos. A new supercut put together by YouTuber Crusade588 recontextualizes the Hulk’s story to show how everything from the start was building to the moment Hulk snapped his fingers in Avengers: Endgame. You can watch the video above.
Videos by ComicBook.com
The Hulk never got his proper rematch with Thanos. Undoing the snap is the closest he ever got to payback for the beating Thanos gave him in Avengers: Infinity War. Some concept artwork revealed at this year’s D23 Expo confirmed that there were, at some point in the creative process, plans for Hulk to get a second shot at Thanos, but those plans were abandoned.
In an interview, writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus explained why the rematch didn’t happen. “The battle had all sorts of stuff in it. I don’t know how long that battle is now, but it’s not as long as you might think,” McFeely said. “I know a lot of people were saying they can’t wait for [Hulk and Thanos’] rematch. Well, that would’ve made sense had he not become Smart Hulk. He’s a whole different thing, and that’s not what drives him. So we never thought, ‘Oh, he really is trying to get a crack at Thanos now.’”
At San Diego Comic-Con, the writers revealed they’d planned to introduce Smark Hulk at the end of Avengers: Infinity War. They nixed that plan because they felt it was “completely the wrong tone for that moment in the movie,” according to Markus.
“It was this victory when we were headed toward a crushing defeat, and it was tone-deaf,” Markus said. “But we had already shot Endgame, where he was already Smart Hulk.”
“Imagine the first act of Endgame, he’s Smart Hulk in all of those scenes — meaning when he goes to kill Thanos when they’re sitting around the compound when Tony’s returned — so that required some adjusting,” said McFeely. “And it also meant that we could use the five years as the transition, hint that he’s got problems coalescing, and in the five years he figures it out. You have a couple of lines about gamma radiation and he’s eating pancakes, and off you go.”
What do you think of this Hulk never getting his rematch with Thanos? Let us know in the comments.
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, What If? In summer 2021, Hawkeye in fall 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021, and Black Panther 2 on May 6, 2022. Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight, and She-Hulk are also in the works for Disney+.
