Mark Ruffalo's Hulk may be getting own film

Mark Ruffalo has said that Marvel Studios are considering giving his Avengers character Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk a solo film.

“I think they are, for the first time, entertaining the idea of it,” Ruffalo told Digital Spy. “When we did The Avengers it was basically ‘No!’, and now there is some consideration for it. But there’s still nothing definitive, not even a skeletal version of what it would be. I look forward to going down that road, if we could crack that nut.”

Ruffalo is not the only actor to have portrayed the Hulk, with both Eric Bana and Edward Norton taking on the role in Hulk (2003) and The Incredible Hulk (2008) respectively. However, he is certainly the best reviewed of the three, following his performances in Avengers Assemble (released in the US as The Avengers) and briefly in Iron Man 3. Ruffalo’s Hulk will also appear in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, to be released on April 24th 2015.

Comic books Planet Hulk and World War Hulk have both been mentioned by Marvel’s Kevin Feige as possible sources of new storylines for a solo Hulk film. In Planet Hulk the angry green hero is banished from Earth and becomes a gladiator on a distant planet, while in World War Hulk he returns and takes his vengeance on those who banished him. Including Iron Man, interestingly enough – perhaps a showdown between Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. could be in the offing?

However, Feige has also said that careful handling would be needed to ensure that the Marvel-verse doesn’t get so complicated it collapses like an unstable star (seems like it might be on the verge of doing that already).

“I think there’s pitfalls of continuity-overload, and mythology getting so dense that it almost collapses in on itself,” Feige has said. “It happens every few decades or so in the comics. Apart from that, I’d say everything is on the table.”

For now, we’re waiting to see how The Avengers: Age of Ultron fares next year; perhaps the green light for a Hulk movie will flicker on then.

What do we think to a solo outing for Bruce Banner? Would it be a Hulk smash?