According to Ruffalo, the time between Hulk appearances in Marvel’s cinematic universe was initially quite a bit shorter than the indefinite hiatus Bruce Banner and “the other guy” seem to currently be on.
“I thought that I would be in [Captain America: Civil War],” Ruffalo told Italian-language movie news site BadTaste.it. “But in the end, the reveal of what happened to Hulk is something too big, and Marvel wants to use it later.”
Ruffalo went on to mention that he did indeed have a part to play in the script for Civil War at one point, only to have his role excised from the final draft.
“My character had been inserted in the script, but then it was taken away,” he explained. “Who knows? Maybe Hulk will never return. However, they want to keep the revelation of what happened a secret, because it is something really big.”
Scheduled to hit theaters in May 2016, Captain America: Civil War pits the heroes of Marvel’s movie-verse against each other in a battle to determine whether they should be regulated by government agencies and their accountability for all of their world-changing activities. As the team finds itself divided between factions led by Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Captain America (Chris Evans), battle lines are drawn between the Avengers, and a new enemy emerges to take advantage of the discord among the heroes.
Along with Downey and Evans, Civl War will bring back Scarlett Johansson as Natasha “Black Widow” Romanoff, Anthony Mackie as Sam “Falcon” Wilson, Paul Bettany as The Vision, Jeremy Renner as Clint “Hawkeye” Barton, Don Cheadle as Jim “War Machine” Rhodes, and Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff. Sebastian Stan is also rumored to reprise his role as Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier, and he’ll likely be joined by Paul Rudd jumping into the fray as Ant-Man.
But wait, there’s more! New additions to the Marvel movie-verse in Civil War are expected to include Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther, Emily VanCamp as Sharon “Agent 13” Carter, and Daniel Brühl as Baron Helmut Zemo. The film is also rumored to feature the debut of Tom Holland as the new Spider-Man. Now that’s a lot of supers.
Captain America: Civil War is scheduled to hit theaters May 6, 2016.
