Has Marvel gotten the Hulk movie rights back from Universal?

The recent arrival of 2008’s The Incredible Hulk on Disney Plus has many fans hoping that Marvel has wrestled the rights to Bruce Banner’s alter ego away from Universal Pictures, but not so fast.

The Incredible Hulk, directed by Fast X‘s Louis Letterier, was the second film released in the MCU canon, back when Marvel was just a production house and still needed to partner with distributors — in this case, Universal, which owns the rights to the character of Hulk. Edward Norton originally played the embattled gamma rod, who lives a life on the run in Brazil but returns to the US in search of a cure for his green, bulbous predicament.

The film also introduced Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and her steel-willed father, General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (the late William Hurt). The film drew moderately successful box office earnings and critical notes, but it wasn’t vital enough for anyone to bat an eye when Bruce Banner was recast with Mark Ruffalo in the role for 2012’s The Avengers.

However, The Incredible Hulk is still part of the MCU canon, with the Hulk and General Ross appearing in several other shared-universe films, including Thor: Ragnarok and Captain America: Civil War, respectively. And both characters, along with Betty Ross, are slated to appear in the upcoming Captain American: Brave New World (where Harrison Ford will take over the role of Thunderbolt).

Does that mean Marvel rightfully owns the Hulk now?

Considering how the future of the MCU now seems strangely dependent on the foundations laid in The Incredible Hulk, as well as the film’s celebrated appearance on Disney Plus, it’s easy to see why people are misunderstanding the rights issue.

As it turns out, the only reason The Incredible Hulk has joined its sibling flicks on Disney Plus is because Universal’s share of the film rights expired 15 years to the day after its theatrical release back on June 13, 2008. However, the rights to the character of the Hulk still reside with Universal — exactly how Spider-Man is still owned by Sony, though the company sometimes teams up with Marvel for a shared adventure in the MCU continuity.

As for the possibility of Marvel making its own Hulk movie, there seems to be some confusion here as well:

See, Marvel has always been able to make standalone Hulk movies in the MCU. It actually did that already. It’s called The Incredible Hulk from 2008, and we’ve been writing about it this whole time. Marvel reached a deal with Universal to make and distribute that film, and they surely could do so again.

The reason they haven’t is probably because the previous two Hulk films — including Ang Lee’s non-canonical mood piece from 2003 — weren’t especially lucrative at the box office. Plus, Hulk movies are notoriously tough to get right, as they’re usually about Banner trying to prevent Hulk from smashing, which is what the entire audience has paid to see. As a supporting character, however, Hulk has worked like gangbusters, so Marvel boss Kevin Feige is likely sticking to that strategy for the time being.

And of course, the biggest catalyst behind the absence of solo Hulk films — Universal still owns the rights to the character, so it would get to choose whether it wants to distribute the movie and hence take a big chunk of the earnings. 

Sad, we know, but at least Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner isn’t bidding the MCU farewell any time soon.