There must have been more than a few envious glances being cast towards Sony in the Universal boardroom after the former reached an agreement with Marvel Studios to share Spider-Man, resulting in Tom Holland’s Peter Parker becoming an integral part of the world’s biggest and most popular franchise, while Sony reaped the financial rewards after Far From Home became the highest-grossing movie in the studio’s history.
Universal have always owned the rights to produce and distribute solo movies based on the Hulk, and for a long time, Marvel have resisted the temptation to partner up, even though fans would love to see Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner finally take center stage. The rights holders would no doubt be chasing a hefty sum of money to part with the big guy, though, and Ruffalo is already a pillar of the MCU without having to play a leading role.
That all being said, insider Daniel Richtman is now claiming that Marvel are interested in adapting World War Hulk for the big screen, which might mean that they’ve settled the rights issues surrounding the character, which we’ve heard is the case. That, or they’ve worked out something with Universal.
For those unfamiliar with the aforementioned story, here’s how Wikipedia describes it:
“The culmination of a series of events that began with the Hulk being tricked into space by the Illuminati and a Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury. Planet Hulk shows the Hulk’s subsequent exile and his imminent return to Earth to seek revenge on the Illuminati.”
Of course, Ruffalo is thought to be the next Phase One stalwart that’ll ride off into the sunset once She-Hulk debuts on Disney Plus, while Amadeus Cho has also been rumored to add to the franchise’s gamma-irradiated quotient. The gladiatorial element of the comic book series was already loosely adapted in Thor: Ragnaork, too, but then again, the studio may just choose a few aspects of the arc for this potential project to bring to the big screen.
Unfortunately, Richtman doesn’t get into specifics, only saying that Marvel wants to adapt it. Though that’s probably enough to get fans incredibly excited at the prospect.
