Marvel Studios is reversing course on one of Avengers: Endgame's biggest storytelling surprises when Spider-Man: Brand New Day is released. The fourth Avengers flick took many narrative swings with its characters, particularly after its five-year time jump. Thor was thrown into a slump, Hawkeye got sent down a dark, vengeful path, and other heroes saw drastic changes to their status quo. Now, Marvel Studios is acknowledging one of these choices and is immediately shifting gears.
Fans recently got a first look at a lot of characters who will appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Some of those characters were villains like Scorpion, Tarantula, and Boomerang, but another character was the Hulk. The first look at Mark Ruffalo's Hulk reverses the decision to introduce Smart Hulk in Avengers: Endgame, a perfect mix between the rage-filled monster and Bruce Banner. Now, Ruffalo's hero will be back to being full-on green meanie once again.
Notably, many fans criticized Marvel Studios for doing this, and immediately wanted to see the angry Hulk again. With Brand New Day bringing that version of the character back, the studio will be fixing Hulk, as well as one of the only complaints fans had with Endgame.
When Smart Hulk was first introduced in Endgame, many found him to be a less interesting version of the character. Bruce Banner's psyche was something so many found compelling, and it also created a sense of suspense anytime he was on-screen since he could turn into a raging version of the Hulk at any second.
Marvel Studios tried to bring Smart Hulk back in She-Hulk to get viewers more interested in him and allow people to spend some more time with the character, but essentially, everyone wanted the old Hulk back.
No one really knows what Hulk's full character arc will be in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but the fact that the regular Hulk will be returning already has fans more excited to see the film.
One aspect of Hulk that nearly everyone loves is that he can be a powerful ally or a dangerous adversary, and could even go toe-to-toe with the heroes if he is pushed too far. Perhaps something like that will happen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Why Is Hulk in Spider-Man 4?
Everyone can agree that Spider-Man: No Way Home was a massive film and that it would be hard for Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures to top it in terms of star power. When a movie grosses nearly $2 billion and includes two of the most important Marvel actors of all time (who have also been absent for many years), it is hard to replace them.
However, it seems as though Marvel is trying to do just that with Savage Hulk. Marvel has heard the fans begging for Savage Hulk to return since he was taken away in Avengers: Endgame, and now the company is pulling him back out and giving fans something they have not had in eight years.
Hulk is a draw. He can get people to come to the theater. Promising that he will share the screen with Spider-Man (which has never happened in the MCU) can get even more people to buy a ticket.
It is also worth mentioning that Hulk's inclusion brings an important question to the table, that being whether Hulk knows Spider-Man's identity or not after Doctor Strange's spell. It has been established that Bruce Banner was able to create a device to keep the Hulk side of him at bay, meaning that just Banner could be present.
If Bruce put the Hulk side of him completely away while Doctor Strange performed the spell, Hulk may not have been affected by it, which could set up some interesting interactions between the two characters.
