As much as we loved Avengers Infinity War, a moment from the trailers left us feeling robbed. Footage of the Hulk charging full-force with several other Avengers through Wakanda had fans eager to see how this action sequence would come to be in the MCU film… except it never did.
And we never got to see it in Endgame, either. So why did the MCU lie to us? Watching all the Marvel movies in order, you’ll notice that a fair few scenes from trailers have ended up on the cutting room floor. But as we power through Marvel Phase 5 and get closer to upcoming Marvel movies like The Marvels, we can’t help but wonder what the story was behind that scene of the Hulk in Wakanda.
In an interview with Comicbook.com, second unit director and VFX supervisor Dan Deleeuw has finally broken down the scene that never was. “It’s something that, there’s stuff that misleads, which I generally haven’t been a part of per se, but that one was a giant spoiler, right?” he said to the outlet.
He continued, “Because we didn’t want to give away Smart Hulk at that point. And, so I think you’ve probably seen it where there’s the scene that we didn’t put in where Hulk and Banner are arguing with each other inside the Hulkbuster, and then what was originally going to happen is that Hulk was going to come out, and we didn’t realize it was Smart Hulk yet, and it was an idea that I think Jeff Ford had on [Age of] Ultron.”
“There was another scene that didn’t make it in, but the idea was that he thought Tony went to go confront Ultron, and really he had stuck Banner in the Iron Man armor and then Banner Hulks out and started wailing on Ultron. It was such an amazing idea. It’s like, ‘Oh, we got to put this in.'”
Clearly, a sequence where Hulk pops out of the Hulkbuster suit had been on Marvel HQ’s mind for a while — all the way back to when Avengers: Age of Ultron was still being made. But on both occasions, it was ultimately decided that the scene wasn’t necessary.
“We used the same idea at the end of Infinity War, but again, both times it didn’t help the story,” Deleeuw explained. “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. So it was kind of, that shot was caught in the confluence between trying to get this really fun idea and also not having Nat, Natasha have to go up the Hulk who just magically turned into Smart Hulk, and then meanwhile, Thanos is wiping everybody out. So it’s all story.”
Admittedly, including a gag like that during the climax of Infinity War would’ve definitely taken away from the movie’s emotional impact and weakened Infinity War’s legacy as having one of the best movie cliffhangers in the MCU. But who knows? Maybe they’ll return to the idea a third time in a new movie — although this time, they’ll have to incorporate Smart Hulk into it somehow.
Deleeuw has now taken a step up in his Marvel career, having directed episodes of Loki season 2. He’s now firmly in the game of mischief, then, so playing around with a few trailers is probably the least of his crimes against the sacred timeline! For more on the MCU, check out our guides to the best Marvel characters, best Marvel series, best Marvel villains and the Captain America 4 release date. Or, find out when the Loki season 2 episode 3 release date is.