Avengers: Infinity War opened with a brutal fight between the Hulk and Thanos. While the Hulk initially had the upper hand, the Mad Titan quickly overpowers him and essentialy beats him into such a state of fear that the Hulk has no interest in coming out to play later on in the film. This sharply contrasted with the amount of Hulk we saw in
Thor: Ragnarok, where Bruce Banner largely took the backseat.
Speaking at an event for the Smithsonian Associates this past week, the Russos were asked about their decision to keep Banner from transforming into the Hulk during the climatic battle. Joe Russo explained that while he and his brother are huge fans of the Hulk, they felt the audience had grown accustomed to Banner Hulking out at the last minute and saving the day.
Therefore, the brothers decided to turn this expectation its head and instead self-empower Bruce Banner, putting him in a situation where he must rely on his own skills and intuition to face Thanos and his forces, rather than those of the Hulk. Joe Russo had the following to say about Banner not being able to rely on the Hulk to save him this time:
We have to be careful with the character of Banner. Because if every time he's in trouble Hulk saves him, Hulk becomes the hero and he becomes whiny. We wanted to force Banner to be the hero.
The Russos also explained that the Hulk's appearance in trailers in the battle of Wakanda was a deliberate misdirection to prevent people from figuring out the movie's final act. They sought to keep fans continuously guessing about how those events would unfold in Wakanda, a true testament to their extreme efforts to spoil as little of
Infinity War as possible before the film arrived in theaters.
So there you have it! Hulk was never planned to have a role in the latter part of the movie, and the focus was always on having Banner fight as himself. Be sure to share your thoughts below about the amount of Hulk vs Bruce Banner in
Avengers: Infinity War, and your predictions on Banner/Hulk's arc in
Avengers 4.