Now I don't want to sound like a pessimist but I'm worried for the future of Hulk in the MCU. Hulk's iconic status for Marvel is soon becoming overshadowed by Iron Man and Captain America's growing popularity. So far Hulk has 1 solo film almost forgotten by the general public and no solo films that were promised after Avengers 2012.

His appearance in Avengers 2012 was the best by far but after that MCU seems to have abandoned him as Iron Man, Captain America and Thor get new solo films while Hulk gets none.

His appearance in Avengers Age of Ultron was underused and he didn't say a single word, not even his catchphrase "Hulk Smash". Hulk would mysteriously leave the Avengers at the end of the movie with no hint at his future whatsoever.

Looking at the MCU future films release chart, Hulk did not appear at all and this has got me worried. I feel like the MCU is abandoning Hulk instead of improving him. My hopes for a Planet Hulk movie literally went down the drain but I pray this isn't going to stay the case. What are your thoughts?

There is a Rights problem with Hulk solo films I believe and that is why we are not getting one. The only way I would see marvel work around it would be to make a Maestro only film lol.

Mark Ruffalo said that RDJ told him he's in Civil War so there's that. Me personally I think Marvel are improvising with Hulk.

I actually don't care about Hulk in MCU anymore, the only thing that could make me care again is if they did Planet Hulk. They dropped the ball with him big time in AOU and Mark Ruffalo acting like a twat on social media makes it hard for me to enjoy his preformance... Even though i desperately try to separate the character from the actors real life, let's say it's a struggle when i try to re-watch Lethal weapon movies...

In the first Avengers film Hulk was made to look bad ass and cool, but after Avengers age of Ultron Hulk looks soft and whack. I read some comments on the net like " Hulk is no longer cool after that Ironman beating" or "Hulk is just a pussy now". I bet RDJ bitched that he wanted to win against the Hulk cause he stole his spot light in the first film. Kevin Feige worships RDJ and with that 50 million pay check it's really Ironman and his friends and NOT an Avengers film.

Ironman has had 3 films already and Hulk has had 1 and Ironman stills steals the spot light from Hulk by having Hulk get a beat down by Ironman in age of Ultron. Wow, so that's the BIG part that Feige said Hulk would have is to get a beat down by Ironman and not say a word, lol. Hulk is an icon but Marvel Studios treat Hulk like Solomon Grundy from the DC comics in there films. They just don't care about the Hulk.

And for those morons that say a Hulk film can't work well then the same could have been said after Batman forever and Batman and Robin, Superman3, 4 and returns and Spider-man 3, amazing Spider-man 2. You need a good story and director and you will get an awesome movie.

Marvel has been for years keeping Hulk dumb and mute, thus giving Hulk zero appeal and personality. Just look at the following cgi characters that talk and are far more interesting that Hulk. Yoda, Gollum, Ted, Smaug, Caesar, Optimums Prime and all the Ninja Turtles and yet Marvel continues to keep Hulk quiet. Hulk has been talking since 1962 in the comics, but Hulk has been more mute than the Universal Frankenstein monster on film which the character was semi- based on.

I no longer have faith in Marvel studios when it comes to the Hulk. Marvel does know how to handle Hulk well in film. I hoped that Marvel gets curb stomp by DC films in the coming years while Marvel holds on to Ironman/RDJ nuts, lol.

I agree with much of this. Iron Man is a favourite character of mine (below Hulk obviously), but its so obvious they suck up to RDJ. I mean Stark creating Ultron and Vision and it was bad enough in the first film when IM stalemated Thor. To me in AOU it seemed like they just didn't know how to fit the Hulk in and for me it was a major disappointment, hence why AOU doesn't feature in my Top 10 MCU films, but Avengers Assemble is top 3 or 4....

Hulk is hugely popular with the kids and in fact all ages, helped by the TV show which people my age watched when we were kids. We need a new Hulk film and one where he actually uses his thunderclaps and other stuff. I mean the Hulk can leap miles in one bound but only in the Ang Lee movie has he done so? Ironically the Ang Lee Hulk film actually got more right about the character than the films that followed...(healing factor, getting stronger when angrier, etc).

I really enjoy Avengers Assemble. I think most of the characters are pretty right on.

Well I don't like hawkeye nor blackwidow. I really hate black widow.

@schwarz: Avengers Assemble as in the movie or TV show? I won't judge you.

@bezza: It is such a disappointment that Iron Man, Captain America, Thor etc are fast becoming more popular than Hulk despite being widely unknown to the general public until a few years ago. In my opinion Spiderman, Wolverine and Hulk should always be at the top of Marvel's icons such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are for DC. Hulk's lack of speech and dialogue is making audiences lose interest in him which is really frustrating to me.

I'm not even sure Hulk has much of a future in MCU or one at all. Is Mark Ruffalo even trying to promote the character the way Robert Downey Junior is doing with Iron Man or Chris Hemsworth with Thor?

If Marvel doesn't do Hulk proper justice I'm probably going to give up hope on the MCU and look forward to the DCCU. At least there, they treat their characters with justice. I'm sure they'll come up with a legit explanation for Batman's win over Superman.

@underdogsupporter: The TV show. I even started watching Agents of Smash. It is lightweight but I still like to see the big green smashing ! I think I have enjoyed those shows a lot more than the recent Hulk comics. The 2 movies were good. Loved the first one the second one was weird for a Hulk fan. It wasn't bad but meh.

I don't really want to see Hulk during civil war. Kind of disrespects the heritage of the comic books. Planet Hulk was one of the greatest comic books series I have read and by ignoring it, it feels like Marvel is ditching one of their best stories. In my opinion. There are other good series out there but I love Hulk and Planet Hulk was amazing to me.

Can someone explain to me what the issue is with Universal. The second Marvel CU in phase one of Marvel CU was the Incredible Hulk, so clearly its been ok for a solo Hulk film before.

Hulk is definitely one of Marvel's top 3. I would have said number 2 behind Spiderman until a few years ago. I don't think Wolverine is in the same league....probably Iron Man, cap, Hulk and Spiderman are the big 4.

@Bezza I think that when Marvel studios did the Hulk film in 08 Disney did not own them. At that time Paramount and Univesral were distributing the Ironman, Capt, Thor and Hulk films but Disney who now owns Marvel brought back the distributions rights from Paramount. They also did the same with Universal but, Universal refused the offer given to them, so Disney was unable to have full distribution rights. Now if Marvel does a Hulk film Universal get about a 20% cut or more of the profits which Disney does not want to do since they own Marvel characters. I suspect that Universal who has a long history with Hulk on TV and with there Hulk roller coaster did not want to give up the Hulk. In others words Hulk is *ucked when it comes to a solo film.

By the way to all the folks who think that Hulk is Whedon favorite character are wrong because some time ago in a Wizard magazine he was asked who was the worst comic book character and he responded with the Hulk. The reason why Hulk looked awesome in Avengers was because maybe Feige was aware of this and told him don't make Hulk look bad. By the 2nd Avengers film Whedon had more creative control and 50 million dollar RDJ ironman may have influenced the out come of Hulk vs. Hulkbuster. If this battle had occurred in 08 Hulkbuster would have lost plain and simple. Right now Ironman could beat Superman with how pop RDJ/ironman is. Money is money and the 50 mill Mr. pop is gonna have the last word, lol.

Well to be fair the HulkBuster only knocked out a confused, non-angry, calm Hulk, almost Bruce Banner calm. I like to bring out this example. If someome sneaks in Mike Tyson's house and wakes him up with a baseball bat to the face knocking him out does that make him stronger than Mike Tyson... not really.

BTW I said it a bunch of times. I think if Marvel wanted to make a Hulk solo film without giving 20% to universal I think they could somehow use Maestro to work around the rights.

@underdogsupporter: I know how you feel. I would love to see another Hulk movie made but there is a huge obstacle in the way and that obstacle is this: Universal Studios.

Marvel can produce a Hulk movie if they want but Universal owns the distribution rights and that's why they can't make another Hulk movie. The same can be said for a Namor movie.

I would love to see the next Hulk movie be based on the "Planet Hulk" story that leads into an Avengers movie based on the "World War Hulk" story but if that can't happen then the next Hulk movie should be about Hulk facing off against The Leader or Red Hulk and meeting Amadeus Cho or Rick Jones for the first time or reuniting with Betty Rose again while facing off against The Leader or Red Hulk.

Now in order for another Hulk movie to happen, two things need to happen:

1. Marvel and Universal need to work out a deal to make another Hulk movie happen.

2. If Universal is interested in doing another Hulk movie but are too scared of distributing another film, they could give up the distribution rights and have them go back to Marvel so that Marvel can finally make and release another Hulk movie.

Only time will tell if we'll ever see the green Goliath in another solo movie again.

Sooooo much potential for Hulk solo films. However, I'm doubtful Marvel will do anything. Apparently he's not in Civil War, and there will be an explanation for it, but I doubt a film will come. I would love a Planet Hulk and a World War Hulk film.

Well Avengers without Hulk or Thor and its just not the Avengers take away the good Captain and you done sunk that ship.

Not just any hulk for only one exist and that is Bruce.

Not just any Thor I refer to Son of Odin Thor god of Thunder not , Alien of boom. Not just any hero cookie cutter will do bring back Ironman the hero , do away with Ironman the paranoid person whom thinks and does everything. Give Tony back his mind he never got rich back stabbing people. He is not the villain.

This is obvious. Hulk is a very 1 dimensional character who can't say anything besides grunts and his widely known catchphrase "Hulk smash!". Of course he has his other side Bruce Banner who is betrayed as shy and nerdy so it's hard for him to be favored by the masses. Of course audiences love hulk in the avengers it's fun to see him go on a rampage and destroy a lot of stuff. But It would be very hard to make a meaningful solo movie full of an abstract plot and character building instead I feel like it would be like the rest of hulks performances, him "smashing" things. At best it would be like a transformers movie. And that's at best.

HULK HAS HAD TWO FILMS U IDIOT AND THEIR NOT SELL OUT POINTS THEIR EPIC! FIRST IS JUST GREAT.. VERY GREAT. SECOND SELLED OUT BUT WHY NOT? .. SURE HE MIGHT, IT WOULD HAVE TO BE LOST IN DIMENSIONS WHERE PRE RETCON BEYONDER FINDS HIM

@ Stl9997: Mon rêve aussi :)

I don't understand how people see Hulk getting KO'd by Hulkbuster as a low showing. Hulk's at his most vulnerable when he's calm and confused like he was when he saw what he'd done. Hulkbuster wasn't doing anything to him except keeping him occupied and angry.