Following Hulk's self-imposed exile at the conclusion of "Avengers: Age of Ultron," many Marvel fans thought he'd next pop up in May's "Captain America: Civil War." However, Mark Ruffalo confirmed that he was not in the upcoming showdown movie and directors Anthony and Joe Russo echoed that statement as well. As it turned out, Marvel planned to use the character in "Thor: Ragnarok."
While Ruffalo will certainly be a part of "Ragnoarok" in some form or the other, is it possible that his strong denials of any involvement with "Civil War" were all just clever misdirection? During an appearance on the "Movies with Ali Plumb" podcast (via HeyUGuys), Anthony Mackie aka Falcon, mentioned that Ruffalo was in fact one of the actors involved with "Civil War." Check it out.
"It's because it's more of an acting movie than an action movie," he said. "I feel like the story is very concise and interesting, and you get to see Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo and everybody just do really, really good ACTING. And then there's action in it. I think it might be the first superhero movie that might be up for Best Picture."
Was this an honest mistake or a crucial slip of the tongue? Was Mackie referring to Marvel movies in general when he namedropped Ruffalo or "Civil War" in particular? It's possible that Ruffalo shot a few quick scenes for the movie without the public getting wind of it, but it's doubtful that he would be in full Hulk mode. After all, whichever team has the Hulk is basically going to win. That's why sidelining him for this film made so much sense.
We know that Bruce Banner/Hulk was originally in the script, but was cut out in one of the early revisions. Ruffalo was reportedly seen with Mackie, Evans and Daniel Bruhl during filming in Berlin last August, but that visit doesn't mean he's in the movie. If he is, perhaps it's something similar to his appearance in the "Iron man 3" post-credits scene.
Long story short: we have no idea what to expect.
"Captain America: Civil War" will arrive on May 6 while "Thor: Ragnarok" is scheduled to hit theaters Nov. 3, 2017.
