Marvel Director Reveals The Truth Behind A Hulk Mystery In Avengers: Infinity War

For years, one "Avengers" mystery has eaten at MCU fans from the inside like a Hyrdra agent. At one point in the trailer for "Avengers: Infinity War," a clip of the Hulk in Wakanda can be seen. But as fans know, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) has a hard time coaxing his Hulk side out for most of that movie, only returning to his green form in "Avengers: Endgame" when he merges it with Banner to become Smart Hulk, known in the comics as Professor Hulk. But now, a key figure involved with the film has revealed how Hulk smashed his way into the trailers.

Dan Deleeuw, the second unit director and VFX supervisor for both "Infinity War" and "Endgame," revealed during an interview on the Phase One podcast that the standard version of Hulk was there to misdirect fans away from Banner's transformation. "We didn't want to give away Smart Hulk at that point," the "Loki" director said. 

Deleeuw also noted that the sequence was part of a scrapped idea to reveal Smart Hulk at the end of "Infinity War." The moment would have involved Smart Hulk emerging from the Hulkbuster Iron Man armor first shown off in "Avengers: Age of Ultron." "What was originally going to happen is that Hulk was going to come out, and we didn't realize it was Smart Hulk yet," Deleeuw said.

While the reveal of Bruce Banner's Smart Hulk persona was at one point in the development of "Avengers: Infinity War," it was ultimately kept on the bench until "Avengers: Endgame." That's why the trailer for the former film featured footage that didn't find its way into the finished theatrical cut. The normal Hulk showing up was a way to heighten the surprise of that intended moment. However, according to Dan Deleeuw, the conception of that idea actually began some years earlier during the development of "Avengers: Age of Ultron."

According to Deleeuw, writer Jeffery Ford had suggested a scene where the audience thinks Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) is confronting Ultron (James Spader), only for the armor to open as a fully enraged Hulk pops out and begins to smash the artificially intelligent villain. Though it's a fun idea, and one that Mark Ruffalo has teased before, it's easy to see why it didn't make the cut for "Age of Ultron." The Hulk had already defeated Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in a similar surprise attack during the events of the original "The Avengers." Ultimately, the concept didn't end up working out for "Infinity War," either. "It didn't help the story," Deleeuw said. "So, both times it came out and it was like, 'Oh!' It's like, it's such a great gag, but we really didn't have a chance to get it in.'"