Hulk Writer Peter David Hopes Marvel Studios Follows Avengers: Endgame With Future Imperfect Movie

After premiering Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in Avengers: Endgame, inspired by the Peter David-created Professor Hulk of the Marvel Comics, David hopes Marvel Studios considers another time-travel movie influenced by his Future Imperfect stories.

“I would like that if [MCU audiences] knew that I created the version of the character who was in Endgame, right? Really thrilled about that,” David told Comics: The Gathering. “I mean, right down to the glasses, I couldn’t believe it. You know, ‘I spent 18 months in a gamma lab, and this is what I got.’ I went, ‘It’s perfect.’ I mean, I was thrilled when I saw that they had basically used my merged Hulk as the new movie Hulk.”

In 1992, David premiered the two-part The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect, exploring an apocalyptic possible future decimated by nuclear war.

There Hulk — among the last-surviving super-powered beings — rules the imperfect future as an aged and bearded dictator known as Maestro, driven mad by the same lingering effects of nuclear radiation that enhanced his already mighty power. A time-traveling Hulk is tasked with combating his evil future self, who wields both the brain of Bruce Banner and the brawn of Hulk with none of the conscience.

Marvel’s 2015 Secret Wars crossover launched five-issue limited series Future Imperfect, also penned by David, where a band of rebels fought to oust Maestro as ruler of Dystopia. This brought this version of Maestro into conflict with the Thing, depicted in this alternate reality as recurring Banner foe Thaddeus Ross instead of Benjamin Grimm.

If Marvel Studios delves into the multiverse with Future Imperfect, David wants Hulk reunited with once lover Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) in place of Banner’s oldest comic book ally Rick Jones.

“Now, I’m hoping that they wind up doing Future Imperfect, which I think would be freaking awesome. I think Future Imperfect would make a fantastic Hulk movie,” David said. “I mean, I would even have the trophy room, except, you know, they don’t have Rick Jones in movie continuity. So I know exactly who I would have oversee the trophy room. I’d have the Black Widow. An incredibly aged Black Widow.”

“And Bruce would walk in to see and go, ‘Natasha, but… you’re dead. You died in this world.’ And she’d go, ‘No, Clint died,’” David continued, referring to Endgame‘s sacrifice showdown between Natasha and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) on Vormir. “And then he would realize he’s in an alternate future. Because you know, in that version, Clint died and the Black Widow survives. So that’s how I would do that. I would have an incredibly aged Natasha there. I think that would be freaking awesome.”