Avengers 4: Mark Ruffalo confirms the REAL reason Hulk wouldn’t come out in Infinity War

The actor revealed that the plot point actually dates right back to a discussion he had with Joss Whedon when filming Avengers: Age of Ultron.

“We went back and forth a lot on how to end the movie with Banner, and do we repeat the Hulk coming at the last minute or do we try something new?” he told The Marvelists podcast.

“And I think at that point we were all thirsting to have Banner be his own hero for once.”

He added: “There’s a conflict brewing between Banner and Hulk that’s been going on since the beginning and it all came out of this question that Joss Whedon asked me when Hulk gets the fairy dust from Scarlet Witch sprinkled on him in Avengers 2.

“Joss asked ‘What is Hulk afraid of?’ And that was a hard thing for me to answer, because what is the strongest, fiercest thing in the universe afraid of? What could he possibly?

“And then I realised its Banner. The only thing Hulk is afraid of is Banner.

“And so that’s become something we’ve been riffing on since Avengers 2. We played with a lot in Ragnarok, and it continues to be teased out in Infinity War 1 and Infinity War 2.”

An interesting teaser at the end, there, that this is an issue that will continue to be prominent in the as-yet-untitled Avengers 4, due out next year.

In the same interview, Ruffalo also answered questions about the future of the character in the next movie.

“I can’t really talk about it, what I want, because I’ve had so much a hand in where it’s going, my own little hand,” he admitted.

“But I will say that I want to see this [Banner vs Hulk] conflict carried out and see where that takes us and see, can they come to terms with it?

“Do they get a moment? I always thought it would be great to see them in some sort of subspace where they get to battle it out with Banner’s brains as some sort of his own superpower, like psych weaponry against Hulk’s brute strength and have these two characters battle it out.

“I always thought that would be the ultimate comic book ending or something, opening to these characters.”

Avengers 4 is completing some additional scenes this autumn, after initially wrapping last year.

The movie will be preceded by the 1990s-set Captain Marvel movie, fronted by Brie Larson, out in March.

Avengers 4 is out on April 26 in the UK.