Mark Ruffalo has six picture deal with Marvel

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The Avengers is currently smashing its way through the UK box office like the Hulk with a headache, with many of the critical plaudits going to Mark Ruffalo's thoughtful performance as Bruce Banner.

Ruffalo does a great job as both the long-suffering Banner and his mayhem-happy alter-ego, so it should come as no surprise to learn that Marvel has tied him down to appear in a few more of their movies. Six to be precise!

We're presuming that The Avengers was the first of those six, which would suggest that Ruffalo will be appearing in five more of the studio's forthcoming outings. We'd guess that at least two of those movies are potential Avengers sequels, perhaps with a couple of cameos in one or more of Thor 2 , Iron Man 3 and Captain America 2 .

We'd suggest that Iron Man 3 might be the most likely, given the bond established between Banner and Tony Stark in The Avengers . And then of course there's the possibility of another standalone movie for the Hulk.

Ruffalo has previously expressed an interest in doing a solo movie, and after watching his performance in The Avengers , we'd definitely be keen to see that happen. Whilst Eric Bana and Ed Norton were fine in the role, Ruffalo has already staked a pretty decent claim to the definitive Bruce Banner. Has he done enough to take centre stage? We'll have to wait and see...