Mark Ruffalo spoke about the chances for a solo Hulk movie from Marvel Studios, but said it isn’t likely to happen any time soon.
In an interview with Yahoo! Movies this week, the Spotlight star explained that the issue is the relationship between Marvel and Universal, which still has the distribution rights for Hulk solo movies. Unfortunately, the relationship isn’t as warm as the one between Marvel and the new regime at Sony.
“Marvel and Universal famously don’t get along very well, and so that’s working against us, definitely,” Ruffalo explained. “But I know for a fact that everyone is holding out hope that one day we can do it. But the nature of the relationship right now, it’s a little prohibitive. And I hope that that changes, that changes with regimes, it changes over the course of time. But right now it doesn’t look particularly promising.”
Ruffalo said that Marvel is probably trying to work out a deal with Universal that is similar to the one reached with Sony on Spider-Man.
“Yeah, I think ultimately that’s what they’re after, it working out for both sides,” Ruffalo said. “But like I said, Marvel and Universal are just not having a good time together right now.”
Back in April, Ruffalo also talked about the relationship between Marvel and Universal during an interview with Collider. Universal was behind the 2003 Hulk movie, but 2008’s The Incredible Hulk is considered part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since it was a Marvel production. (Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton in The Avengers, but William Hurt has been called back to reprise his role in Captain America: Civil War.)
Ruffalo won’t be seen as The Hulk/Bruce Banner again until Thor: Ragnarok. However, you can see his great performance in Spotlight, which is still in theaters. He was also surprisingly nominated for a Golden Globe for his little-seen indie movie Infinitely Polar Bear.