Mark Ruffalo is seemingly expanding on recent comments about why a solo “Hulk” film will never happen. In a recent GQ interview about his Oscar-nominated supporting role in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” his fourth Oscar nod, the actor was once asked about Marvel and his thoughts about the superhero studio.
For one, Ruffalo was asked about Marvel’s current identity crisis, following their difficult 2023 and Disney’s desire to scale back and do less, so audiences might miss Marvel (something THR dug into deeply yesterday; 2024 as their rethink and recalibration year).
“I think the expansion into streaming was really exciting, but the thing about Marvel movies is you had to wait three years, and that created a mystique,” Ruffalo said about how Disney+ gave audiences more content but perhaps took away the allure in the process. “These corrections could be really positive things. Will it be what it was? I don’t know.”
Asked about the “Hulk” and whether there would ever be a solo film, Ruffalo echoed comments he recently gave where Marvel said it would never happen but elaborated a bit more on the why of it.
“I’d love to do a standalone Hulk; I just don’t think that’s ever going to happen,” he said. The CGI for the character is costly to produce, even though Ruffalo says it’s likely to have come down in price over the years as technology has advanced. “It’s very expensive if you did a whole movie, which is why they use the Hulk so sparingly. I priced myself out!”
This wouldn’t be the first time a Marvel Studios actor has said Hulk-VFX was too expensive to produce. Asked whether there would be a second season of “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law,” a series that Ruffalo co-starred in, series star Tatiana Maslany said she was doubtful there would be one because they overspent and Disney wasn’t happy about it. “I think we blew our budget, and Disney was like, ‘No thanks,’” she explained earlier this year.
For years, it was said a solo “Hulk” film couldn’t be made because of rights; Universal held them in part, and Marvel wasn’t allowed to make a solo film with “Hulk” in the title because of this (even “The Incredible Hulk” starring Edward Norton, was produced by Marvel, but distributed by Universal).
It’s been speculated and suggested that those rights have lapsed, and what’s holding solo “Hulk” films back is the aforementioned cost, but until someone like Marvel’s Kevin Feige clears that up, we may just not know.
Ruffalo also talked about the so-called “stigma” of working with Marvel and spoke about an actor—who he didn’t name—who asked him his advice because he had been offered a Marvel role but was unsure if he would take it (and it sounds like he didn’t.)
Ruffalo says the actor asked him if he was ever worried that certain filmmakers would never work with him because he was a Marvel actor. Ruffalo said: “Well, not really.”
The actor apparently said he knew a few directors who wouldn’t work with Ruffalo because of the Marvel association. Here’s the exchange Ruffalo told GQ:
And The Actor said: Well, I can name a few who won’t work with you.
And Ruffalo said: Like who?
And The Actor said: Well, Paul Thomas Anderson won’t work with you.
“I was like, ‘Oh fuck. If there’s ONE person I wanna work with, it’s Paul Thomas Anderson.” Ruffalo howls in the diner. “Well, that SUCKS.”
One sort of finds it hard to believe that PTA would hold that against Ruffalo; he does have broad mainstream taste and loves Adam Sandler. In fact, he once said his family was “Marvel obsessed” and loved movies like “Shang Chi” and “Venom,” who knows, I guess. The main takeaway remains, though: don’t expect a solo “Hulk” film any time soon.
