Marvel Studios has finally explained its Hulk movie deal with Universal Pictures and how it affects the character's role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which was recently published by Abrams Books), it's noted that Universal and Marvel publicly agreed upon a new deal regarding the Hulk film rights in 2006. However, this only happened after Universal failed to get a sequel to Ang Lee's 2003 Hulk movie in active development by the contracted date (at which point the rights would revert to Marvel).
David Maisel, a former Marvel Studios executive who played a key role in getting the MCU up and going, subsequently proposed that Marvel Studios make the next Hulk film and pay Universal to distribute it, which resulted in 2008's The Incredible Hulk. This also ensured that Marvel Studios could use Hulk in "future multicharacter films," beginning with The Avengers in 2012 and continuing on to Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). At the same time, Universal retains "the right of first refusal to distribute any future solo Hulk movies," which accounts for the lack of a second Hulk solo movie in the MCU.
Of course, this hasn't prevented Marvel from giving Hulk a multi-film arc in the MCU, similar to those for characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow. As Mark Ruffalo, who took over playing Bruce Banner/Hulk from Edward Norton after The Incredible Hulk, explained in 2017, Marvel Studios President/Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige "pulled me aside before [Thor: Ragnarok], and said, ‘If you were gonna do a … if we were going to do a standalone Hulk movie, what would it be?’" After Ruffalo explained what he had in mind, his ideas were integrated into not only Ragnarok but also Infinity War and Endgame.
Ruffalo is now playing Bruce Banner/Hulk in the She-Hulk TV series, which is allowed under Marvel's deal with Universal since it's not a standalone Hulk project. The Incredible Hulk star Tim Roth is also reprising his MCU role as Emil Blonsky/Abomination for She-Hulk, having recently lent his vocals to the character for his cameo in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
She-Hulk will premiere on Disney+ in 2022.
Source: The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe
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