Avengers: Infinity War Smart Hulk Debut Deleted Scene Revealed

Since the release of Avengers: Endgame and the press tour associated with it, we’ve known that Smart Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) was initially supposed to appear in the closing moments of Avengers: Infinity War. Having refused to appear for the duration of the movie after getting beaten up by Thanos (Josh Brolin), the personalities of the Hulk and Bruce Banner were set to merge during the character’s climactic battle with Cull Obsidian.

The crew even went the length to film the scene during principal photography, and the sequence has started making its rounds online once again. Though it features unfinished visual effects — Ruffalo is visible in his mo-cap suit for the majority of the clip — fans can still get a sense of what was going to take place. See the scene below.

Infinity War and Endgame writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely previously explained why the scene was cut, saying it didn’t work having the victory, per se, in the middle of a scene where the rest of the universe was suffering great loss.

“Imagine the first act of Endgame, he’s Smart Hulk in all of those scenes — meaning when he goes to kill Thanos, when [the Avengers are] sitting around the compound when Tony’s returned — so that required some adjusting,” McFeely said. “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.”

Added Markus, “Also, it’s like, you get it. Part of the thing we learn every time you write a movie — and particularly a movie where it’s a continuing storyline — you don’t have to explain as much as you think you have to. You can go to Queens, people know who Spider-Man is. I don’t need to see him get bitten by the spider again. Like, ‘okay, he’s a combination of Hulk and Banner, I get it.’ Just give me a crumb as to how it happened.”

Avengers: Infinity War is now streaming on Disney+.

Where do you hope to see Smart Hulk pop up next? Think it over and let us know your thoughts either in the comments or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!