Mark Ruffalo previously offered the reason there is no new solo Hulk movie is because Universal Studios owns the distribution rights.
Now Ruffalo exands upon the subject, talking with Yahoo, offering that Universal and Marvel don’t even get along.
“I think they’ve been working on it. Marvel and Universal famously don’t get along very well, and so that’s working against us, definitely. But I know for a fact that everyone is holding out hope that one day we can do it. But the nature of the relationship right now, it’s a little prohibitive. And I hope that that changes, that changes with regimes, it changes over the course of time. But right now it doesn’t look particularly promising.”
It’s noted that things are working out between Sony and Marvel (with Spider-Man), which Ruffalo offers that’s the hope for Universal and Marvel, but again says things are not good between the two.
Yeah, I think ultimately that’s what they’re after, it working out for both sides. But like I said, Marvel and Universal are just not having a good time together right now.
The gist of the problem seems to be a feud between Universal’s parent company, Comcast, and Marvel Studios’ own parent company, Disney, over a failed merger from back in 2004, as Ruffalo compares the battle to Marvel vs. DC.
I know. It’s like the Marvel Universe and DC going after each other.
While no solo Hulk film looks to be happening any time soon, the Green Goliath is slated to next appear in Thor: Ragnarok and The Avengers: Infinity War.
Regarding a Hulk solo film, I wonder if the rights are in regards to the title of the film or if the majority of the screen time features the Hulk? Say for instance, Marvel simply didn’t use “Hulk” in the title (i.e. “Warbound”), would that be able to get by Universal’s distribution rights? Or what about if they gave a different character a minute of more screen time (i.e. Caiera) than the Hulk?