If this works, it’ll be awesome. If it doesn’t? John Carter. So last week I told you guys a little bit about “Phase Three” of Marvel’s upcoming film slate – these are the flicks that happen after Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and finally Avengers 2. One thing I noted is that the company didn’t really have a “heavy hitter” in the bunch – all of the films were focused around mid-level heroes without as much name recognition value.
Well, if El Mayimbe at Latino Review is to be believed, that’s about to change. He says that Phase Three of the Marvel Cinemativ Universe will be all about the Hulk. As played by Mark Ruffalo, the green goliath was one of the best things about Avengers, so it’s not surprising that they’ll be giving him a little more screen time in the future. Here be potential spoilers, so read carefully.
The rumor has it that at the end of Avengers 2, the team will be forced to decide that the Hulk is too dangerous to be allowed to run free on Earth, so they’ll trick him into a rocket and shoot him into space, pointing him at a peaceful uninhabited planet where he can live out his days. Unfortunately, the rocket goes off course and he lands on a vicious, war-torn world. Enter Planet Hulk. The classic storyline was one of the comic’s high points, and would make a great stand-alone movie. Planet Hulk would deal with the Hulk’s rise to power on the planet Sakaar, and then Avengers 3 would adapt the World War Hulk storyline where he comes back to Earth with an army to get a little revenge.
The Hulk has been the one Marvel character to never really “click” with his own film series. In 2003, Ang Lee helmed a take on the character that was a little too dark (and ended with the Hulk fighting his dad who turned into a tornado), and 2008 saw Edward Norton take on the role and reboot the series, and although it wasn’t a bad film it was also the lowest-grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe flick so far.
I’m personally of the opinion that this is a pretty cool idea – Planet Hulk puts him in an environment where he can wreak tons of havoc and smash tons of aliens without having to worry about the repercussions on the rest of the planet, and having him return to Earth to whip ass is a great setup for Avengers 3. What do you think? Can the Hulk carry his own movie, or will the third time not be the charm?