Is Marvel Planning to Wage World War Hulk?
The Worldbreaker may be on his way to theaters. Since Avengers: Endgame, Marvel hasn’t been able to figure out what to do with the Hulk (you could argue they barely knew what to do with him in Endgame); he’s now in his Smart Hulk guise, which is basically a motion-capture version of Mark Ruffalo being himself as opposed to the rampaging monster fans want. In Phases 4 and 5, he only appeared in She-Hulk, minus a quick cameo in his Bruce Banner form in the mid-credits scene from Shang-Chi, and he was mostly there to take abuse from his insufferable cousin and introduce a plot point that came out of nowhere and satisfied no one. But there is mounting evidence that Marvel wants to fix this and finally give audiences some good Hulk action.
In Thursday’s Production Weekly listing, you can look at the bottom and find World War Hulk. World of Reel reached out to their sources and were told that the movie is not officially a go, but Marvel does plan to shoot it this year, with both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* leading into it. They’ve also reached out to some directors to helm World War Hulk, one of whom is George Miller of Mad Max fame, who is also interested in directing the next Thor movie, possibly at the behest of Chris Hemsworth, who arranged a meeting for his Furiosa director with Kevin Feige. And on this week’s episode of The Hot Mic, John Rocha reveals from a source that Marvel wants to bring back the Savage Hulk and that he was originally supposed to appear in the next Spider-Man movie (along with the Punisher!).
Marvel is going from zero to HULK SMASH pretty quickly if this all pans out. If you’ve never heard of it, “World War Hulk” is the title of the second half of one of the best Hulk stories ever; the first half was “Planet Hulk,” which Marvel bastardized into Thor: Ragnarok and completely fumbled. (Watch this Braeden Alberti video to see how Marvel has done the Hulk dirty in the movies.) “World War Hulk” finds an enraged and stronger-than-ever Hulk returning to Earth from Sakaar to seek revenge on the heroes who exiled him – ironically, for the one thing done to him of which they’re innocent. This also makes their use of Hulk villains and supporting characters in Brave New World slightly less infuriating, although I’m still pretty pissed that they’re “paying off” the Leader setup from The Incredible Hulk and introducing Red Hulk in a movie that doesn’t even have the Hulk in it. Could they feature in World War Hulk or some subsequent Hulk movie? I think it’s possible; since they screwed up “Planet Hulk” already, Marvel will need some other inciting incident to turn the Hulk’s ire towards Earth and its heroes; I can see the Leader being behind it. (This reminds me that World War Hulk isn’t going to be as satisfying as its comic book progenitor because some of the characters opposed to Hulk in the comic won’t be around, particularly Iron Man, who was kind of a biggie.) On the other hand, they’re setting up Sentry in Thunderbolts*, so maybe they’ll at least recreate one big fight from the comic.
Is this a good thing? Yes and no. I love “World War Hulk,” and it would make an epic movie if done correctly, but I have almost no faith in Marvel’s ability to make a good movie anymore. First of all, as I’ve said twice already because I’m still mad about it, they wasted all of the potential “Planet Hulk” had to be an amazing movie, and that’s what leads into “World War Hulk.” I know they’ve messed with the comic stories before with good results (“Civil War,” The Infinity Gauntlet, etc.), but “Planet Hulk” is so intrinsically tied to “World War Hulk” that it feels wrong. It’s the perfect lead-in, and it’s so rich in characterization, pathos, drama, and bone-crunching Hulk action. But even conceding that this sometimes works for the MCU, I don’t trust them anymore. Look at how they introduced Skaar, the Hulk’s son; he was a throwaway line/awful CGI effect in a quick scene at the end of She-Hulk like he’s some Easter egg instead of part of a big ongoing story for the Hulk. And most of the original Avengers are gone, so Hulk fighting the other heroes isn’t going to mean nearly as much as it would have. I want this to be great, but I don’t really believe in Marvel anymore.
Anyway, here’s a clip of Gary from Nerdrotic and ItsAGundam on the Critical Drinker’s podcast talking about a hypothetical Planet Hulk/World War Hulk movie (although the whole video is great):
Let us know what you think of a potential World War Hulk movie in the comments!
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