Friends, comrades, fellow fans… lay off the Planet Hulk would you please?
We’re all very excited for the rumors that Hulk may be heading to… distant locales after the events of Age of Ultron, and Planet Hulk is a pretty damn memorable Hulk storyline, but there has never been, nor are there currently, any hard plans for a movie version.
But I read on the internet…
For whatever reason, Planet Hulk rumors have been circulating as far back as The Avengers in 2012. The reasons for that aren’t too difficult to imagine. Mark Ruffalo suddenly made the Hulk cool again, and with aliens playing a huge role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe from that point forward, a lot of fans had light bulbs going off above their heads.
The following year, perennial rumor kings Latino-Review reported that Marvel was indeed working on such an adaptation, although this was shot down soon after by Ain’t It Cool News. In the years that followed, it feels like an unending string of unverified reports have emerged, each more certain than the last.
Sadly though, this has always (and continues to be) pure speculation. Marvel head Kevin Feige has said as much as recently as last July (and it wasn’t the first time either), when Guardians of the Galaxy was preparing to hit theaters.
But last week…
Last week, the Planet Hulk rumors came swinging around yet again, when Ruffalo gave an interview with IGN. In the interview, Ruffalo seemed to confirm that the Hulk was going into space, which should have been the big news. Instead, he accidentally name-dropped Planet Hulk, and the internet exploded.
He later spoke with the Wall Street Journal, and confirmed that that while he’d be interested, Planet Hulk isn’t even on the table yet.
“I was asked once if I was going to do a Hulk movie, and I said no. They don’t even have plans for it because they don’t even own the rights to yet, or anymore. But it would be fun to see ‘Planet Hulk,’” Ruffalo told the WSJ. “Someone said, would you do it? And I said I’d definitely entertain it. But, no, that’s not in the works right now.”
Then why did he mention it in the interview?
I’m fairly sure that interview was a series of flubs for him, especially since he straight up blurted, “well [Hulk is] going to space.”
I feel like the Planet Hulk comment was a bit of a stumble for him after he realized what he just said. And the idea that Planet Hulk is being discussed shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. I’m sure Planet Hulk has come up at Marvel loads of times, as have likely every other major storyline featuring the character.
The fact of the matter is that Marvel is constantly considering and developing projects, but very few of them actually make it any farther than that. Planet Hulk is almost certainly on the brain over at Marvel, but the fact that a solo Hulk movie isn’t even in serious development yet should tell you that this idea is very, very far from becoming a reality.
But could it happen?
Absolutely, but probably not in the near future. A solo Hulk movie seems like a very real possibility considering Ruffalo’s continued popularity, but given the fact that Marvel has a full schedule through at least 2019… we might have to wait a while.
Until then, feel free to speculate away on what a Planet Hulk movie might look like, but can we please stop pretending like it’s going to be announced any day now?
