Thor: Ragnarok Starts New Hulk Trilogy

Screen Rant

Thor: Ragnarok is the Beginning of a New Hulk Trilogy

By Matthew Erao

Published Oct 10, 2017

Mark Ruffalo discusses the evolution of the Hulk over his next three films and how Thor: Ragnarok is the start of the character's trilogy.

According to Mark Ruffalo, Thor: Ragnarok will be the beginning of the next phase in the Hulk's evolution. While The Incredible Hulk helped to kick off the MCU back in 2008, things have grown more complicated since. Suffice it to say that with Disney now the owners of Marvel Studios, both companies either can't or won't make another solo movie given some tricky rights issues. Instead, Bruce Banner and The Other Guy have slowly evolved in various team-up films.

We first met the slightly updated take on the Hulk when Mark Ruffalo took over the role in The Avengers. Since then, Ruffalo has become a fan-favorite and we've seen his characters continue to grow thanks to Avengers: Age of Ultron. And with that film sending Hulk off on his own, it looks as if the character's appearance in Thor 3 will help kick off a new trilogy for the Jade Giant.

Cinema Blend spoke with Mark Ruffalo recently and the actor discussed how he and Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige envision the continuation of Hulk's story.

"So basically, Kevin [Feige] pulled me aside before this, and said, 'If you were gonna do a... if we were going to do a standalone Hulk movie, what would it be?' And I said, 'I think it should be this, this, this, and this and this, and ends up like this.' And he's like, 'I love that. Why don't we do that in the next three movies, starting with Thor 3 and then we go into Avengers 3 and 4.' And I was like, 'That sounds great!' And so we are at the beginning of this arc."

While the next three Hulk appearances in the MCU won't technically constitute a trilogy, they'll allow the character a new arc with a solid throughline. If the Hulk's first three MCU entries were the beginning of Bruce's journey to accepting and controlling the Hulk, Ragnarok will allow the other persona a chance to take charge more.

"Hulk speaking is the start to separating of these two individuals, these identities in this split-identity person, and where that's going to end up going. So it was really interesting to me. He's like a baby! He's like a five year old or six year old. So he has the same syntax, he has the same world view, and so it was fun. It's like Chris [Hemsworth] — we all got to reinvent our characters in this."

While these ideas have been explored in the comics, Ragnarok will show us how the Hulk as an entity has evolved over the past few years with Bruce taking charge less and less. From there, it looks like Avengers 3 and 4 will continue the heavy lifting for the character in terms of his growth. And who knows, perhaps Phase 4 will finally bring with it a Hulk movie. If nothing else, the character will likely be welcome back in the follow-up to Thor: Ragnarok.