Mark Ruffalo says a Hulk standalone movie is "not looking promising"

If you're one of many Marvel fans hoping for a standalone Hulk movie, you might want to temper your expectations. Although he's repeatedly stated that he'd love to do it, Mark Ruffalo - who has played the jade giant and his alter-ego Bruce Banner in Avengers Assemble and Avengers: Age of Ultron - has always said that it's unlikely, and that stance hasn't changed in his latest update.

Speaking with Yahoo Movies, Ruffalo explained that "Marvel and Universal famously don’t get along very well, and so that’s working against us, definitely. But I know for a fact that everyone is holding out hope that one day we can do it. But the nature of the relationship right now, it’s a little prohibitive. And I hope that changes; that changes with regimes, it changes over the course of time. But right now, it doesn’t look particularly promising".

After years of negotiating, Sony and Marvel were able to come to an agreement with Spider-Man earlier this year, so here's hoping something similar will occur with Marvel and Universal. While we continue to patiently wait for Hulk to get his solo shot, at least we won't have to wait until the next Avengers film to see him on screen again; the character will next show up in Thor: Ragnarok, which is being described as a "buddy picture". Sounds good to us!

Directed by Taika Waititi and starring Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, and Ruffalo, Thor: Ragnarok is set to arrive in UK and US cinemas on November 3, 2017.

Images: Marvel

Amon Warmann

Amon is a contributing editor and columnist for Empire magazine, but is also a Film and TV writer for GamesRadar+, Total Film, and others. He has also written for NME, Composer Mag, and more, along with being a film critic for TalkSport. He is also the co-host of the Fade to Black Podcast, and a video mashup creator. Can also do a pretty good Bane impersonation.