Bruce Banner and his slightly angrier alter ego (Mark Ruffalo) will return in Spider-Man: Brand New Day to cause big problems for Peter Parker (Tom Holland), but what does Marvel Studios have planned for the Green (Grey?) Goliath going forward?
Possible spoilers follow.
Ruffalo wasn't part of that massive Avengers: Doomsday cast announcement (the actor joked that it was "better to get rid of me than for me to tell the end of the next movie"), but previous rumors have claimed that he - along with Tatiana Maslany's Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk - will play a part in the movie.
However, MTTSH is now reporting that neither character will appear in Doomsday, though we can expect to see both Banner and Walters - as well as "many" other Hulks - in Secret Wars.
This aligns with the (supposedly) leaked concept art that circulated online last year, with one image featuring multiple Hulks in a village. Speculation points to Banner, Walters, Skarr and other Hulk variants populating the Gamma-irradiated zone of Battleworld known as Greenland.
This is just one theory based on the artwork, but several scoopers have claimed that Secret Wars will include Banner and Walters, at the very least.
In related news, Robert Downey Jr. spoke about hearing Alan Silvestri’s Doctor Doom theme for the first time during an interview with Brandon Davis.
“We’re on day 4 of production … Joe’s like, ‘It’s going pretty good. Come here.’ And he plays me Doom’s theme. And I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Okay, it’s that.’ And it even affected that day of shooting and every day since.”
Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars were hit with significant delays last year, with Doomsday now set to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026, and Secret Wars positioned for December 17, 2027.
Both movies will be directed by the Russo brothers, who also make their MCU return after helming Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
"Being able to create stories and explore characters within the Marvel Universe fulfilled a life-long dream of ours, and we discovered a powerful connection with audiences in each film that we made. We’re thrilled to collaborate once again with Kevin, Lou and the entire Marvel team to bring this epic adventure in storytelling to new and surprising places for both the fans and ourselves”, said The Russos in a statement after the SDCC panel.
Doomsday will star:
Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Lewis Pullman as Sentry, Florence Pugh as Yelena, Danny Ramirez as Falcon, Ian McKellen as Magneto, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Winston Duke as M’Baku, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Kelsey Grammer as Beast, James Marsden as Cyclops, Channing Tatum as Gambit, and Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent
Along with Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Rebecca Romijn as Mystique, Patrick Stewart as Professor X, Alan Cumming as Nightcrawler, Letitia Wright as Black Panther, Tenoch Huerta Mejia as Namor, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, and, of course, Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom.