The 'She-Hulk' Finale Brings on 'World War Hulk'
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When we last had a proper hangout with Mark Ruffalo's Hulk in 2019, he was like that person who somehow came out better from the pandemic. You know the type. Maybe they got in shape, or just low-key enjoyed not seeing people. Our favorite large green boy managed to merge Bruce Banner and Hulk together, calling himself... Smart Hulk. Genius.
At the conclusion of Endgame, of course, the guy was left with a broken arm due to strapping on the Infinity Gauntlet and bringing half of the universe's population back to life, but that's the small stuff. We have more pressing issues. She-Hulk's first episode, which debuted on Disney+ way back in August, caught us up with Banner, showing us how the man's been since the whole Thanos thing. The answer: Pretty well! Banner managed to invent a contraption that keeps him in human form. He lives in Mexico, in some ginormous man cave Tony Stark built, along with a bar, which Banner seems like he loves a little too much. Of course, this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe we're talking about, so some superhero shit has to happen at some point. After She-Hulk's finale, which just dropped on Disney+? We get said shit. But first, we need to quickly throw it back to the first two episodes of She-Hulk...
If You Blacked Out the Beginning of She-Hulk...
Early on, Banner and Jennifer Walters are merrily driving and chatting, when a Sakaarian ship shows up and blasts them off the road. Whoops. The incident incites the great Hulkification of Jennifer Walters, sure. But what about the spaceship? Banner quickly writes off the flying object as a simple cost of being a Hulk: weird stuff happens. He identifies the intruder as from Sakaar, though, which is the (literal) trash planet ruled by Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster. In 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, Hulk lives in this world, fighting in an intergalactic coliseum, leaving by the end of the film. So what could Sakaar possibly want with the Hulk? Well, the Grandmaster is out there somewhere, so he could simply want his prized fighter back.
Then? Episode Two happened. We glimpse Smart Hulk flying away in the ship (!) after he says, "I got some things I gotta take care of." (?!?!) Yeah. You know where we're going with this. Maybe, just maybe, the MCU is setting up the long-rumored World War Hulk film. Marvel doesn't quite have the rights for a Hulk solo movie right now, but it's worth speculating.
What's World War Hulk Again?
World War Hulk is a popular storyline from the comic books that sees the Hulk rage fully out of control after spending time on Sakaar, coming back to Earth and turning Madison Square Garden into the Thunderdome, essentially. It's an Avengers-level event. When Variety asked Ruffalo what he made of She-Hulk's tease suggesting that we'd see the Hulk on Sakaar once again, here's what he said:
I don’t know. It certainly does suggest that. There has been some conversations about what happened in the two years where Hulk abandoned Banner and the Avengers [on Sakaar], and the emergence of Smart Hulk, which hasn’t ever fully been answered. I think maybe we’ve given four sentences to that time period since then. It’s really an interesting, exciting part of the Hulk story and Banner story. I do think that the trip to Sakaar is a good place to start and what that means to the idea of what the fans have been asking for — this idea of Planet Hulk or World War Hulk or just the journey that Banner and Hulk have to make to come to peace with each other. That’s really interesting to me, and I do feel like there is some interest in exploring that down the line.
So there you go—Smart Hulk may once again give way to Mean Hulk. (We'll work on the name.)
OK, So How Does That Clusterfuck of a Finale Tie In?
At the end of She-Hulk's final episode, the Walters fam has a nice little picnic. Jennifer is there, mom and dad, Matt Murdock... and the Hulk? Who introduces his CGI blob of a son, Skaar? The episode ends shortly after that, so we don't really get answers. The one hint we do have arrives when Walters has her chat with K.E.V.I.N. The subject of Banner's whereabouts comes up briefly in the conversation, and we hear that whatever Sakaarian antics went down will be addressed "in the movie." Can we take that as our World War Hulk confirmation? Maybe. Stay tuned—we're bound to hear from Ruffalo, Maslany, or even K.E.V.I.N. in the coming days.
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