Avengers: Where Hulk Was During Iron Man's Endgame Death

Bruce Banner and Tony Stark have one of the healthiest friendships in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so where is Hulk when his friend dies at the end of Avengers: Endgame? The two heroes established the foundations for the MCU with their respective solo movies before meeting each other in The Avengers, where they immediately hit it off and become "The Science Bros.". Even after building a genocidal robot together and destroying a couple of cities while fighting in Avengers: Age of Ultron, they remain close friends. So, it's odd that Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) never gives a proper farewell to Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) when the latter dies in Endgame.

After fusing the man and the monster into one smart hybrid, Hulk volunteers to wield the fully-equipped Infinity Gauntlet to bring back everybody who was dusted by Thanos (Josh Brolin). Besides the permanent loss of his arm, Hulk is crushed under the Avengers facility when Thanos arrives from the past, but Hulk's snap works and Iron Man is able to sacrifice himself to defeat the Mad Titan. In the theatrical version of Endgame, Stark's closest friends gather around him while he takes his last breath, except Hulk. As much as he must be hurt and exhausted, Hulk should be present during his friend's final moments, but he vanishes after a brief appearance in the previous battle and only reappears at Tony's funeral.

A deleted scene from Avengers: Endgame shows every Avenger in the battlefield kneeling in respect for the fallen hero - even characters that never interacted with him, such as Shuri (Letitia Wright) and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). Hulk is still absent for most of it, and many fans who watch the scene could be forgiven if they don't spot him at first. But on a second rewatch, the big green Avenger can be spotted in the left border of the frame right behind Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), and next to Wong (Benedict Wong) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman). He's obscured by debris, and the scene fades to black just a couple of seconds after he shows up.

Hulk in Avengers Endgame's deleted scene

The death of Black Widow (Scarlet Johannson) on the distant planet Vormir gives Hulk a legitimate reason to miss her final moments, as he couldn't have imagined that the Soul Stone required her to die in order to retrieve it. Still, her friends take a second to mourn her and her death serves to motivate them to keep fighting, especially her former lover Hulk. However, there's no reason for him to miss Tony Stark's death right in front of him. Meanwhile, Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) have their fair share of screentime to tear up, regardless of their previous confrontations with the now-deceased hero.

It's possible Hulk's fully-CGI appearance could have taken the audience out of such a serious moment or maybe his recent transformation into a comedy relief character was too fresh to see him shedding tears up close. Perhaps it was too difficult to have him appear given other restrictions - either in production or scheduling. Whatever the reason is for his limited presence, Avengers: Endgame still achieved the most emotional climax of the MCU, and Marvel fans could see just how important Tony Stark/Iron Man really was when everyone - including Hulk - attended his funeral.

Next: How Powerful The Hulk Really Is In Each MCU Movie