Fans might remember that a "scoop" before Avengers: Age Of Ultron released suggested that the movie would conclude with the Hulk ending up in space. However, in the final cut of the film the green goliath instead disappears in a quinjet with mention that contact was lost when he was flying over the Caspian Sea.
In a new interview with The Wrap, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige has revealed that this was not originally going to be the case. Instead, it seems Hulk was going to end up in space but a media story caused them to rethink the ending.
“We said, ‘Joss, we can’t do that because he’s not going into space and people are going to think we’re doing ‘Planet Hulk’ because Umberto has some big hot scoop that we’re doing ‘Planet Hulk,’ we can’t do it.’ He goes, ‘Well, what are you going to do?’ We said, ‘We don’t know.’ So, if you go back and look at that shot of the movie, he’s in the sky. It’s blue sky.”
Feige further revealed that the script originally included a mention of Hulk being near Saturn. It seems then that while the Hulk was going to end up in space at the time, there were no plans for this to lead to a ‘Planet Hulk’ storyline. Of course, we now know that elements of ‘Planet Hulk’ are included in Thor: Ragnarok but this was not decided until a year later. Feige further explained that a conversation with executive Brad Winderbaum lead to Hulk’s inclusion.
“Well, what if he did go to space? We would jokily call it ‘Planet Thor,’ for a while. I went, ‘You know what that means?’ They go, ‘What?’ I go, ‘That means Hulk went to space at the end of Ultron.’
So as it turns out, the original plan ultimately came to fruition.
We’ll get to see exactly what happened to the Hulk after his disappearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron when Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters in November.