Any franchise that’s existed for as long as the Marvel Cinematic Universe and churned out so many film and television titles is always going to have its fair share of ifs, buts, and maybes, but that doesn’t make it any less frustrating that at least three of them involve Guillermo del Toro.
The three-time Academy Award-winning filmmaker is undoubtedly one of the best in the business at what he does, and Blade II along with his Hellboy duology showed he was a dab hand when it came to adapting comic books of both the Marvel and non-Marvel variety for the big screen in spectacular style.
Having toyed with the idea of directing Thor and pitched Doctor Strange alongside Neil Gaiman, it turns out that del Toro was also circling the prospect of a TV series focusing on everyone’s favorite gamma-radiated green rage monster, with new book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios revealing that “del Toro expressed interest in making a Hulk series, but opted to spend his time on the movie Pacific Rim instead.”
While the first installment of the giant robots vs. giant monsters blockbuster was successful enough to spawn a sequel, del Toro didn’t return to direct and instead sat by and watched Uprising fail to an extent that it killed the property stone-dead on the live-action front.
Seeing him apply his unique talents to an episodic Hulk project would have been mouthwatering, but it’s beginning to feel as though he and the MCU are always going to be passing like ships in the night.