What Hulk Would Have Seen In The Soul Stone In Endgame
Avengers: Endgame had a lot of heavy lifting to do. The movie was responsible for tying up several smaller franchises' worth of plotlines in a neat bow, while also providing the audiences with some of the most epic Marvel Cinematic Universe drama and action that the world has ever seen. While the film did an extremely commendable job executing its various herculean tasks, the sheer amount of information Endgame had to pack in its 181-minute runtime meant that some things could only be briefly explored, and others were mere Easter eggs that may or may not come into play in future MCU movies.
One of the more interesting things that the movie didn't have time to truly explore was the "Hulk snap." In Endgame, the green giant has found a balance between Bruce Banner's (Mark Ruffalo) brain and Hulk's brawn, which enables him to wield the Infinity Gauntlet and bring back the people Thanos (Josh Brolin) had removed from existence in Avengers: Infinity War — without losing his life in the process. Both Infinity War and Endgame establish quite clearly that the people who use the Infinity Gauntlet at this level experience peculiar visions, presumably courtesy of the Soul Stone. However, we never get to see Hulk's particular one.
Fortunately, during a live-stream-and-tweet event for Avengers: Endgame held on April 27, 2020, one of the film's co-writers, Christopher Markus, finally revealed what Hulk's vision would have been.
The Soul Stone would have shown Hulk the closest person in his life
During the Twitter event, Inverse's senior entertainment editor Jake Kleinman asked about Hulk's Infinity-Stones-induced vision, pointing out that both of the other "snappers" had one — one that made it to screen and one that was filmed but seen only as a deleted scene on the home release of the movie. Thanos' infamous snap at the end of Avengers: Infinity War had a side effect: he had a vision about his adopted daughter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana), as a child. Considering that the villain had sacrificed Gamora in his quest to obtain the Soul Stone during Infinity War, this was a pretty bittersweet thing. The same goes for the vision Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) experienced in a deleted Endgame scene that saw him meet his daughter, Morgan, all grown up.
According to Markus, he and his Endgame co-writer Stephen McFeely indeed had an Infinity Stone vision in store for Hulk as well, but it was ultimately never filmed. Markus revealed that the scene, should it have actually gone to production, would have been yet another meeting between the wielder of the Gauntlet and someone very close to him. However, this one had a twist only Hulk could deliver: The vision would have involved a conversation with Bruce Banner and his green alter ego — Hulk and Banner would have spoken to one another.
Markus jokingly added as a reason why the scene didn't get shot, "Ruffalo showed up but Hulk wouldn't come out of his trailer."
It would certainly have been interesting to see the two halves of the Smart Hulk coin get a chance to discuss their situation face to face, but hey, even a movie as gigantic as Avengers: Endgame can't deliver everything.