Marvel Studios reveals why they never adapted Planet Hulk into their own film. Planet Hulk was a storyline that ran through The Incredible Hulk comics between April 2006 to June 2007 from writer Greg Pak and artists Carlo Pagulayan and Aaron Lopresti. The storyline involved the Hulk landing on the alien planet of Skaar and leading a gladiatorial revolution.

Since the comic's release, it has been cited as one of the best Hulk storylines and one that many fans wanted to see adapted into a feature film. However, the complicated rights over the Hulk with distributor Universal Pictures always held up a potential solo film. Combine that with the fact that The Incredible Hulk is the lowest-grossing film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a Hulk sequel, particularly one where most if not all the characters would have to be CGI, would be a difficult sell. Storyline elements like the planet Skaar, characters Korg and Miek, and The Hulk as a gladiator would be adapted in the film Thor: Ragnarok.

Related: How Thor: Ragnarok Compares To Thor And Planet Hulk Comics

In the recently released book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by Tara Bennett and Paul Terry, it is revealed that one of the biggest obstacles in adapting the storyline for a film was actually how little Bruce Banner plays a role in the story. In the book, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said that "We never even considered doing Planet Hulk because, as cool as we thought the comic was, Bruce Banner is not a part of Planet Hulk." Joss Whedon was also instructed to change the ending of Avengers: Age of Ultron so fans would not think they were doing a Planet Hulk movie. Feige's comment from the book (via Comicbook) on Planet Hulk can be read below:

"I went, 'Joss, we can't do this. People are going to think we're doing Planet Hulk. They had Whedon change the dialogue to say they lost him while still on Earth and replaced the starry sky in the VFX shot with the blue of Earth's atmosphere.

Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner and Hulk from Thor Ragnarok

The internet rumors Feige is referring to first broke in February 2013, when former Latino-Reviews El Mayimbe reported that the then-unnamed Avengers 2 would feature Bruce Banner being shot into space, setting up a solo film. Whedon denied those rumors pretty quickly, but it appears that even if Marvel didn't have a Planet Hulk movie planned they did intend to originally have Hulk go to space at the end of the film. With how popular Mark Ruffalo's incarnation of Bruce Banner turned out to be after The Avengers, it makes a certain amount of sense why Marvel Studios would want Bruce Banner to be a central part of any future Hulk story. Even after it appeared Banner was permanently the Hulk after Avengers: Endgame, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings reveals Banner is back.

Another big issue with adapting Planet Hulk would have been timing. In 2013, while the pitch for Planet Hulk may on the surface have sounded like Gladiator but with the Hulk, the film's pitch may have sounded too similar to John Carter. Released one year prior, John Carter lost $200 million and became one of the biggest bombs in box office history. With the low box-office returns of the previous two Hulk films, the distribution deal with Universal, and the lack of Bruce Banner in the original story, it seemed like Planet Hulk was too much of a gamble even for Marvel Studios at the time.

Next: John Carter Was A Flop - But You Should Watch On Disney Plus

Source: The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (via Comicbook)

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