by: S. Scott Stanikmas

I feel bad for Bruce Banner and his rage-fueled alter ego. They can’t seem to catch a break.

First they have a film from Ang Lee that confuses the hell out of the general populace (Is it a drama? A superhero film? An eggplant?) which I totally loved. Then we get an action packed Hulk film from a new director with a new guy playing puny Banner. They tried to ignore Lee’s version and did a pretty good job of it. It was on the outer-outer fringe of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it was there just enough to get Hulk in The Avengers. And that’s where the not-so-jolly Green Giant finally connected with audiences everywhere.

Mark Ruffalo was awesome. Joss Whedon GOT the character. Now all we needed was a new solo Hulk film to let Ruffalo flex his muscles (so to speak).

And we waited for it to get announced during Phase Two. Nothing. Well, there’s always Phase Three, right? Nope again. It’s starting to look like a solo Hulk film is about as likely as a solo Black Widow film. But at least now we have a reason.

In an interview with Collider, Mark Ruffalo sat down to talk about the Jade Goliath and his future on the big screen.

Ruffalo had a few interesting tidbits – that he’s signed on for at least another 4 or so films, that he could show up in other solo flicks and not just Avengers, and that Universal Studios still own the rights to standalone Hulk films.

Wait, what? Then how does the Hulk appear in the MCU movies?

Well, Universal doesn’t own the character (like Sony and Spider-Man, meaning Marvel had to strike a deal to lease the character) but they apparently DO own the rights to distribute the film should it get made. And that may stick in Disney’s craw just a bit now that Disney owns Marvel, and by extension the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So that’s the most likely reason why Marvel Studios hasn’t pulled the trigger on a solo Hulk film. But they have until 2020 and Phase Four to clear all this madness up. Let’s cross our fingers that eventually we’ll get that standalone film before we all forget why we now really dig the character.

And while we’re at it, let’s not give up hope on that Black Widow film either.