Iron Man 3 Will Not Have A Hulk Cameo

For fans who ‘shipped the bromance chemistry between Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) (or, in the land of “OTPs”, better known as “science bros”) in The Avengers, it’s a sad news day indeed. At this past weekend’s Comic-Con 2012 panel, Marvel’s President of Production Kevin Feige told fans that the enormous green rage monster will not be making a cameo in Iron Man 3.

According to Screen Rant, Feige said the reasons for not including “The Other Guy” was to keep the storyline more grounded in reality – eschewing extraterrestrials, mutants and demi-gods in favor of a “real-world [movie] with no aliens”.

Currently filming in North Carolina, plot details for Iron Man 3 are a little sketchy right now, but when you see names like Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) and Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) listed in the cast of characters, it’s a fair guess that the story could involve elements of the Extremis super-serum. How The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley)’s role will fit into this is uncertain though.

The script, penned by Shane Black (who is also directing), promises to be a rollercoaster, given the Lethal Weapon scribe’s action movie pedigree. And it seems that Feige agrees:

“The trick is to not let it get complicated. If you’re a fan of the comics than you’ll know that continuity in the comics can be really interesting and really fun and it can also start to crush under its own weight. ‘Iron Man 3’ is a direct move to prevent that from happening. So it is very much a  Shane Black/Tony Stark story.”

As for when we’ll next see Hulk on the big screen, Marvel has not yet announced a sequel to 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, making the “big guy” the only MCU character from The Avengers without a sequel so far. For those who gravitated towards Ruffalo’s performance in this summer’s blockbuster, the wait is killing us. Come on Marvel, give the green guy another film!