With Mark Ruffalo receiving acclaim for his role in the controversial Poor Things, GQ recently caught up with the actor and, inevitably, talk soon turned to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After being cast as Edward Norton's replacement in 2012's The Avengers, Ruffalo's Bruce Banner has become an MCU mainstay, appearing in that franchise and later everything from Thor: Ragnarok to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
It's no secret that Marvel Studios has faced more than its fair share of challenges during the Multiverse Saga and the actor was asked for his thoughts on what's gone wrong since Avengers: Endgame was released in 2019.
"I think the expansion into streaming was really exciting, but the thing about Marvel movies is you had to wait three years and that created a mystique," Ruffalo says of a shift in focus to Disney+ TV shows. "These corrections could be really positive things. Will it be what it was? I don’t know."
As for his own MCU future, he added, "I'd love to do a standalone Hulk, I just don’t think that’s ever going to happen. It’s very expensive if you did a whole movie, which is why they use the Hulk so sparingly. I priced myself out!" Could it be that he's trying to throw fans off the scene amid rumours of a World War Hulk project? Time will tell.
Later in the conversation, Ruffalo recalls an unnamed actor turning to him for advice about joining the MCU. They shared concerns that certain directors would no longer want to work with them, citing Paul Thomas Anderson as an example. To that, the actor replied, "'Oh f*ck. If there’s ONE person I wanna work with, it’s Paul Thomas Anderson [Laughs]. Well, that SUCKS."
"I've heard it a lot from my peers," he'd add. "Sometimes I think it’s jealousy, a little bit. Because then I see them run off and do it. I’m really proud of it. I’ve sat in movie theaters with the movies I've done with big directors. I’ve also experienced these Marvel movies with an audience and the amount of community and expression...it touched every single emotion. That means something to me. I don’t look down on it."
Ruffalo's MCU future is currently up in the air but, at the very least, we anticipate seeing him Hulk out in the next Avengers movies. Recently, the actor seemed to confirm he'll appear in Captain America: Brave New World, only for Disney to claim he misspoke.