Green light: is Marvel planning to launch the Hulk into space?

The geekosphere is abuzz with speculation that Bruce Banner's angry alter ego will meet up with the Guardians of the Galaxy
Smash hit … the Hulk in Avengers Assemble (2012) PR

Spoiler alert: do not read on if you don't want to know where the Hulk ends up in the final scenes of The Avengers: Age of Ultron.

One of the most exciting aspects of the Marvel cinematic universe is that the Disney-owned studio's superheroes sometimes pop up in movies in which you never expected to see them. The geekosphere has gone into overdrive this week, following a report by the respected blogger Drew McWeeny of Hitfix that the Hulk will wind up meeting the Guardians of the Galaxy in outer space, following the events of the Avengers sequel Age of Ultron.

For anyone who hasn't kept a particularly watchful eye on the whole comic-book movie thing, this might not sound like such a big deal. But to those of you who enjoyed The Avengers, let me say that Guardians of the Galaxy has the potential to hit the same high levels: having visited the Shepperton studios set last year, I can confirm that it is a hugely ambitious space opera epic with a whole lot of heart, and the kind of quick-fire interchanges between the motley main players that fans of the original Star Wars trilogy will love.

McWeeny dropped his bombshell in the wake of comments by Mark Ruffalo, aka Bruce Banner aka the Hulk, in which the US actor appeared to rule out a future Hulk solo movie based on the comic book Planet Hulk. Such a scenario would have seen the giant green meanie blasted out of the solar system on the orders of an Avengers-like group of superheroes called the Illuminati (Iron Man among them), to a planet without intelligent life where they imagine he can happily smash up the local wildlife far from anything approaching a civilisation. Things in the comic book go awry when the Hulk's shuttle accidentally passes through a wormhole and crash-lands on the inhabited planet Sakaar. He is captured and forced to compete as a gladiator for a ruthless ruler named the Red King, along with an assortment of fellow contestants from various planets.

As Ruffalo said himself, Planet Hulk would be a funny way to go, because it features a version of the character who is all Hulk and zero Banner. "I don't think it is the way to go yet," he told MTV News. "I think you need more Banner. The whole thing is just him as Hulk, on a planet, fighting other gladiators."

But Marvel boss Kevin Feige has indicated in the past that the studio might borrow scenarios from both Planet Hulk and the subsequent World War Hulk series, that saw the not-so-jolly green giant returning to Earth to exact revenge on Iron Man et al. Now it looks as if Hitfix has the inside line on exactly how this might work. Anyone who doesn't want to hear a spoiler about the end of Age of Ultron should stop reading now.

McWeeny reports that Joss Whedon's sequel ends with the Hulk trapped in a spaceship that's heading out of the Earth's atmosphere with no way of stopping it. Which provides both a nice parallel with the end of The Avengers and a useful way to send Banner and his alter ego into space to meet the Guardians.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Feb 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy … will the Hulk be joining this line-up? Photograph: Moviestore/REX

Such a move could begin the process of integrating the Guardians into the wider Marvel universe, as well as remove the need for the Hulk to have his own solo movie. The studio would be cautious of going down that path again, after two previous efforts, from the directors Ang Lee and Louis Leterrier, failed to strike much of a chord with fans. And if The Avengers proved one thing, it was that the Hulk works better on the big screen when he has frenemies around him to bounce off.

Hitfix speculates that a Hulk-Guardians movie could easily incorporate other elements of Planet Hulk without slavishly following the storyline of the original comic. So Banner might still end up as a gladiator, but one with the ability to transform into his angry alter ego when he really needs to smash up his alien opponents. Now that sounds like a storyline to grab the attention.

I'm usually loth to highlight unconfirmed blog reports, but McWeeny has a superior track record to the likes of Latino Review (which started the Planet Hulk rumour). And something about this scenario just sounds right. It would expand the Marvel universe into new and radical territory, which is exactly where the studio needs to go to avoid repeating the failure of tired entries such as last year's Thor: The Dark World.

Marvel changed the landscape of comic-book movies with its multi-character approach, bravely betting the house on lesser known superheroes such as Thor, Captain America and Iron Man, then introducing the even more obscure Guardians ensemble before most of us had time to blink. Hulk vs Guardians of the Galaxy sounds like just the sort of idea to move that nothing-to-lose mantra to the next level.