Bruce Banner (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

• 1. Introduction

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  Bruce Banner, the scientist behind the Hulk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, holds seven PhDs and is also a medical doctor. When his heart rate climbs above 200 beats per minute, his body swells into a green giant. Anger or mortal danger can set off the change as well. In The Avengers, that giant speaks exactly one line of dialogue, "Puny god," and Mark Ruffalo alone supplied it. Two different actors have played Banner on screen. The Hulk has also spent years without a solo film of his own. So how does a character without his own franchise end up with one of the longest arcs in the series? What does it take to build a monster out of performance and pixels? And what happens when the man and the monster have to learn to share a single mind?

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• 2. Grey Giant to Green

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  The Incredible Hulk #1, cover dated May 1962, introduced the character to comic readers. Stan Lee wrote it, Jack Kirby penciled and co-plotted it, and Paul Reinman inked it. Lee pointed to Frankenstein and to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as influences. Kirby remembered a different spark: a story about a mother who frees her child from beneath a car. Lee picked the name Bruce Banner because alliterative names were easier for him to remember. The Hulk started out grey. Problems with the coloring led the creators to make him green.

  A 1978 live-action television series cast Bill Bixby as Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the Hulk. A 2003 film followed and drew mixed reviews. Marvel Studios regained the film production rights to the character in February 2006.

  In the mid-2000s, Kevin Feige realized that Marvel still controlled the core members of the Avengers, and the Hulk was among them. Feige, who calls himself a fanboy, imagined a shared universe like the one Lee and Kirby built in their comics in the early 1960s. Louis Leterrier, who had hoped to direct Iron Man, was brought in to direct the Hulk film. His script came from Zak Penn and was meant as a loose sequel to the 2003 movie, though closer to the comics and the 1978 series.

  In April 2007, Edward Norton was hired to play Banner and to rewrite Penn's screenplay. The rewrite was meant to give the film its own identity as a reboot, and Norton went uncredited for it. David Duchovny had been a front-runner for the part, while Leterrier's own first choice was Mark Ruffalo. Producer Gale Anne Hurd recalled Norton's portrayals of duality in Primal Fear and Fight Club. Feige thought Norton resembled Bixby, and Ferrigno agreed that the two shared a physique and a personality.

  Norton was a genuine Hulk fan. He favored the first comic appearances, the Bixby series and Bruce Jones' run on the comic. Even so, he first turned the part down, wary of what he called the "wince factor" of a bad version. He changed his mind after meeting Leterrier and Marvel, who wanted a fugitive story familiar to audiences.

  At the 2008 New York Comic Con, Leterrier publicly offered Ferrigno the chance to voice the Hulk. The script had originally given the creature a single word, "Betty," at the very end. Leterrier knew fans wanted the Hulk to speak, so he added "leave me alone" and "Hulk smash!" The second line drew cheers at a screening he attended.

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• 3. Fugitive Years

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  At Culver University in Virginia, General Thaddeus Ross brought Banner an experiment he said would make humans immune to gamma radiation. Ross was the father of Betty, Banner's colleague and girlfriend. The test was part of a bid to recreate the supersoldier program of World War II. It failed, and the radiation turned Banner into the Hulk for the first time. The Hulk wrecked the lab, killed three people and injured several more. Banner became a fugitive, hunted by the U.S. military and especially by Ross, who wanted to turn the Hulk process into a weapon.

  Five years later, in 2010, Banner is working at a soda bottling factory in Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro. He is searching for a cure and trading messages online with a colleague he knows only as "Mr. Blue." To Mr. Blue, he is "Mr. Green." Yoga helps him hold the Hulk back, and he has not transformed in five months. Then Banner cuts his finger, and a drop of blood falls into a bottle. An elderly man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin drinks it and falls ill with gamma sickness.

  The blood leads Ross to Brazil. He sends a special forces team under Emil Blonsky, a Russian-born British Royal Marine. Banner becomes the Hulk and beats the team. Blonsky then accepts a similar serum for himself. It gives him speed, strength, agility and healing, but it also starts to deform his skeleton and cloud his judgment.

  Banner returns to Culver and Betty, only to be attacked again. The Hulk seems to kill Blonsky and flees with Betty. Banner then contacts Mr. Blue, who tells them to meet him in New York City. Mr. Blue turns out to be the cellular biologist Dr. Samuel Sterns, who has built a possible antidote. He warns that it may only undo one transformation at a time. He has also turned the blood samples Banner mailed from Brazil into a large supply, hoping to use their "limitless potential" in medicine.

  Banner wants the supply destroyed so the military can never have it. Instead he is caught, and Blonsky has Sterns use the blood to turn him into the Abomination. Blonsky tears through Harlem. Banner jumps from Ross' helicopter and changes as he hits the ground, because only the Hulk can stop him. After a long and brutal fight, the Hulk wins and flees. Banner ends things with Betty, deciding the relationship can no longer work.

  A month later, in Bella Coola, British Columbia, Banner transforms on purpose for the first time.

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• 4. Loose Cannon

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  In 2012, Banner is working as a doctor in Calcutta when S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff arrives with a request. The Tesseract gives off gamma radiation, and she wants his help tracing it. She introduces him to Steve Rogers and to S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury. Aboard the Helicarrier, agents under Loki's mind control attack, and Banner turns into the Hulk and nearly kills Romanoff. Thor tries to stop the rampage, which ends when the Hulk falls after hitting a S.H.I.E.L.D. fighter jet.

  In New York City, Banner joins Rogers, Tony Stark, Thor, Romanoff and Clint Barton as a founding Avengers member. When the Chitauri invade, he tells Rogers he is "always angry," then changes at once. The Hulk stops a Leviathan and fights the invaders. He beats Loki into submission in Stark Tower, and he catches Stark as he falls after losing power through the wormhole.

  After the battle, Banner and Stark become close friends and work side by side. Banner even asks Stark to build armor strong enough to stop the Hulk if he loses control. In 2013, relaxing in the Tower, Stark confides about his experience with the Extremis formula and asks for advice. Banner nods off and later says he is not "that kind of doctor."

  In 2015, the Avengers raid a Hydra facility in Sokovia and recover the scepter. Stark and Banner find an artificial intelligence inside its gem and secretly use it for Stark's "Ultron" global defense program. After a celebration, Ultron wakes up, attacks the team at the Tower and escapes. In Johannesburg, Wanda Maximoff sends haunting visions into the Hulk's mind, and he rampages until Stark stops him in the Hulkbuster armor.

  At Barton's home, Banner and Romanoff grow attracted to each other. When Romanoff is captured and taken to Sokovia, Banner leaves the team to rescue her and becomes the Hulk to fight Ultron. After the final battle, the Hulk takes a Quinjet and leaves Earth.

  The comics tell this story differently. There, Ultron is created by Hank Pym, another Avenger. In the films, Ultron comes from Stark and Banner, and the Vision is made as a counter to him.

  Mark Ruffalo summed up the Hulk's place on the team in blunt terms. He called him the teammate none of them are sure they want, a loose cannon. Director Joss Whedon explained that he writes the Hulk's dialogue spontaneously, moment to moment.

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• 5. Exile on Sakaar

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  The Quinjet carrying the Hulk crash-lands on Sakaar, a landfill planet ruled by the Grandmaster. The Grandmaster forces his captive into gladiatorial combat. The Hulk stays undefeated, wins the admiration of the crowds and becomes the Grandmaster's "Champion."

  In 2017, his next opponent is Thor, who crashed onto the planet and was captured by Valkyrie. Thor summons lightning and gains the upper hand. The Grandmaster rigs the fight so the Hulk wins anyway. Still enslaved, Thor pleads with the Hulk to help save Asgard from Ragnarok. Then he slips away and finds the wreck of the Quinjet.

  The Hulk follows. Inside the wreck, a recording of Romanoff turns him back into Banner for the first time in two years. Banner is stunned to learn he is in space. He fears that if he becomes the Hulk again, he may never get his human form back. He escapes with Thor, Valkyrie and Loki, and he becomes the Hulk again in Asgard to save refugees from the giant wolf Fenris. As Surtur destroys Asgard, the group sails for Earth on a Sakaaran vessel called the Statesman.

  Director Taika Waititi shaped the Hulk's speech in this film with future appearances in mind. The creature had the vocabulary of a toddler, and Ruffalo felt he had developed a swagger.

  In 2018, Thanos and his Children intercept the Statesman to take the Space Stone from the Tesseract. The Hulk fights Thanos and is overpowered. Heimdall sends him to Earth by the Bifröst Bridge, and he lands at the New York Sanctum of Stephen Strange and Wong. There he reverts to Banner and warns Strange about Thanos.

  When Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian arrive hunting the Time Stone, Banner cannot change at all. The Hulk refuses to come out, out of fear. Joe Russo saw another reason too, that the Hulk realizes Banner only wants him for fighting and is tired of rescuing him. Ruffalo described the Hulk of this film as having the mind of a five-year-old.

  Banner finally reaches the Avengers Compound, reuniting with James Rhodes and then with Rogers, Romanoff, Sam Wilson, Maximoff and Vision. In Wakanda, he fights the Outriders in Stark's Hulkbuster armor and gets the upper hand on Obsidian. Then Thanos arrives, and Banner is trapped in rocks, unable to fight back. When Thanos teleports away, Banner is among the survivors of the Blip.

  He follows the surviving Avengers into space to Titan II, only to learn that Thanos has already destroyed the Infinity Stones.

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• 6. Professor Hulk

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  Between 2018 and 2023, Banner retreats to a remote beach house laboratory in Mexico, built for him by Stark. There he experiments with gamma radiation to balance his two sides. By 2023, he is permanently in the Hulk's body, with Banner's mind and voice. Writers on the film describe the merged figure as Professor Hulk, with the Hulk's strength and Banner's intelligence.

  The comics took another route. A comparable merger there came through hypnosis performed by the superhero psychiatrist Doc Samson. In the MCU, Banner achieves it alone, through his own gamma experiments.

  At a diner, Banner meets Rogers, Romanoff and Scott Lang and agrees to join their quantum time-travel plan. He travels to Norway with Rocket in the Benatar and finds a depressed, drunken Thor at New Asgard. There he reunites with Valkyrie and meets Korg and Miek. Back at the Compound, the team plans to collect alternate Infinity Stones. Banner, Rogers, Stark and Lang travel through the Quantum Realm to an alternate 2012 in New York City. Banner gets the Time Stone from an alternate Ancient One, and he promises to return every Stone to its own era afterward.

  On his return, he learns that Romanoff died to retrieve the Soul Stone. Banner, Stark and Rocket combine the Stones in the Nano Gauntlet. Banner volunteers to wield it, citing his strength and his resistance to gamma radiation. The snap reverses the Blip, but it seriously injures his right arm. Banner then joins the final battle against the alternate Thanos and his army, which ends when Stark uses the Stones at the cost of his own life. A week later, Banner attends the funeral.

  By 2024, Banner has built a device to heal his arm and keep him in human form. He still wears a sling for the injury. That year, Wong calls him by hologram, along with Carol Danvers, to meet Shang-Chi, and Banner welcomes the newcomer to the team.

  On a California road trip with his cousin, the lawyer Jennifer Walters, a Sakaaran craft forces their car to crash. Banner bleeds, and his blood mixes with hers, turning Walters into a Hulk. Banner uses the lethal gamma dose she took to completely heal his arm. In Mexico he trains her, but she rejects life as a superhero and wants her legal career back. They argue, and he lets her go.

  In 2025, he flies a Sakaaran ship back to Sakaar to investigate a message. A call from Walters arrives there. He encourages her to represent Blonsky, since the two have made amends, and approves of her new name, She-Hulk, saying "She-Hulk, attorney-at-law" has a nice ring. Banner later returns to Earth with his son, Skaar. They crash a family gathering in Los Angeles, where Skaar meets Walters, her parents, relatives and Matt Murdock.

  Other realities hold stranger Banners. In the animated series What If...?, one is a prisoner called the "Monster in the Iron Mask." Another becomes Infinity Hulk after absorbing the energy of the Infinity Stones. A third, in an alternate 2024, tries to bombard himself with gamma and splits off a rampaging "Apex" Hulk. In Deadpool & Wolverine, a Hulk variant is seen fighting a variant of Wolverine.

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• 7. The Solo Film That Never Came

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  In April 2012, Kevin Feige confirmed to Collider that Marvel had no plans for another Hulk film. Ruffalo had just joined the cast as Banner, taking over after Feige said he chose not to bring Norton back. Norton later said the decision was his, because he wanted more variety in his career and did not want to be tied to a single character. The change was so complete that Screen Rant observed many fans forget The Incredible Hulk is canon at all.

  After the positive response to Ruffalo in The Avengers, Feige and Ruffalo said discussions about a new film were underway. Rights stood in the way. Universal kept distribution rights to The Incredible Hulk and the right of first refusal on future solo films. In September 2012, Feige said every comic storyline was on the table, including Planet Hulk and World War Hulk. He asked whether the Hulk could carry a film as entertainingly as he did in The Avengers, and he believed he could.

  By June 2014, Ruffalo thought the studio was considering the idea for the first time. Feige later said Planet Hulk was not being considered then, because the studio wanted Ruffalo's Banner in the story. He also explained why Phase Two had no Hulk film. Other heroes had their own movies, so the only place to put the Hulk between team-ups was the next Avengers film. In December 2014, Whedon said Marvel wanted one character who appeared only in Avengers films.

  The Hollywood Reporter suggested a possible reason Marvel had not recovered the rights as it had for Iron Man, Thor and Captain America. Universal holds theme park rights to several Marvel characters that Disney wants for its own parks. In December 2015, Ruffalo added that the strained relationship between Marvel and Universal might be another obstacle.

  Ruffalo found an upside. In January 2016, he said the missing solo film let the Hulk play a bigger role in Thor: Ragnarok, Infinity War and Endgame. He thought the three films together would feel like a Hulk movie. The cost was lost comic storylines. Planet Hulk was squeezed into Ragnarok, with one key change: the comic's heroes exile the Hulk, while the MCU Hulk leaves Earth of his own accord. A Gizmodo writer complained that the earlier films let Banner babble about science and smash things, while skipping comic plots about his divided identity.

  Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures regained the distribution rights to The Incredible Hulk and future solo Hulk films in June 2023, when the film arrived on Disney+.

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• 8. Building the Hulk

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  For The Incredible Hulk, Leterrier named Andy Serkis' motion-capture work as Gollum and King Kong as his target. Norton and one other performer filmed 2500 takes of movements, including the Hulk's "thunder claps." Phosphorescent face paint and strobe lighting recorded subtle expressions. Cyril Raffaelli and others handled stunts. Leterrier chose Rhythm and Hues over Industrial Light & Magic, which had worked on Ang Lee's film, and about 700 effects shots were made. Image Engine spent more than a year on one shot, in which gamma-irradiated blood drops through three factory floors into a bottle.

  Leterrier felt Lee's Hulk had too much fat and off proportions. He wanted a body with no fat at all, like a tank. Visual effects supervisor Kurt Williams pictured a linebacker rather than a bodybuilder. The team picked a height of nine feet so the Hulk would not seem too inhuman. Programs controlled his muscle inflation and skin saturation, since flushing shows human emotion. Animators decided green blood would darken his skin, so under different lighting it looks olive or gray slate.

  His design drew on Dale Keown's comic art, and his hair came from Mike Deodato's art. A crew cut was dropped because floppier hair gave him more character. Leterrier took An American Werewolf in London as his model for a painful transformation. As a nod to the 1978 series, Banner's eyes turn green first.

  The Avengers was the first production where the same actor plays Banner and the Hulk. Ruffalo said no one had ever really played the Hulk before, since earlier versions were purely computer-generated. The body model came from Long Island bodybuilder and male stripper Steve Romm, and the face from Ruffalo. Four motion-capture HD cameras recorded his face and body on set. Jeff White of ILM said the Hulk drew on Ruffalo down to his eyes, teeth and tongue. The creature's voice blended Ruffalo, Ferrigno and two performers from New Zealand.

  FX Guide's Mike Seymour called Ruffalo's the most successful Hulk, praising its action, humor and dialogue. For Thor: Ragnarok, ILM added facial detail for the Hulk's new speech and captured 90 expressions with its Medusa system. The stunt actor Paul Lowe, who is under five feet tall, stood in for Chris Hemsworth to keep proportions right. Framestore finished the final fight, with nearly 460 shots, and Waititi added motion capture for the Hulk.

  Critics split on Norton. Mark Rahner of The Seattle Times found the film better than Lee's, though the Hulk still looked like a video game. Christy Lemire of the Associated Press missed wit and heart. Ruffalo drew warmer words, from Joe Neumaier's "wry reservoir of calm" to Karina Longworth's "adorably bashful nerd-genius." Owen Gleiberman noted the Hulk is more fun in small doses.

  In August 2025, Ruffalo was reported to be returning in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, due in 2026.

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