Much digital ink has been spilled over Thor: Ragnarok and its ties to Planet Hulk.
How has Greg Pak’s beloved comic influenced the story, if at all? Does Ragnarok feature any particular character plucked from the arc? And will Bruce Banner’s time on Sakaar lay the foundations for a Hulk solo movie? Granted, it appears the answer to that question is a straight up ‘no’, but during an interview with Screen Rant, one conducted on the film’s Gold Coast set last year, producer Brad Winderbaum recalled the ways in which Planet Hulk had a bearing on Thor: Ragnarok. And it’s not what you might expect.
Rather than pitch Ragnarok as a one-to-one adaptation of Pak’s comic book line, it would seem the connective tissue between Taiki Waititi’s story and that of Planet Hulk is more incidental than intentional. Guess Ragnarok won’t be the Hulk extravaganza some fans had hoped.
As Winderbaum recalls, back when Thor: Ragnarok was little more than an idea pinned to a whiteboard at Marvel Studios, Planet Hulk came up in conversation. However, it was more to do with Marvel wanting to incorporate some form of gladiatorial brawl into Thor’s third solo adventure.
Per Screen Rant:
In the earliest development of Thor, we were looking at ‘Planet Hulk’ as inspiration, maybe not even to integrate the Hulk into the franchise but the idea of a planet where there are gladiatorial games as being a Thor predicament. It really was a cool idea to us. Somewhere in the early conversations, when it looked like it was going that way, it was a no brainer. It actually started off as like, ‘…could we have Hulk in there too?’ And then as soon as that spark ignited, it ignited kind of an idea machine. And suddenly [Hulk] was married to the plot.
Following in the footsteps of Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – for the record, the latter heroes may appear in the November blockbuster via cameo – Thor: Ragnarok has been booked in for November 3rd.