‘Avengers 2′ – Joss Whedon Talks Sequel Plus a Hulk Spinoff

One of the biggest surprises to emerge from the massive success of 'The Avengers' was the renewed interest in the Hulk (as well as the puny Dr. Bruce Banner). Marvel's green monster had headlined two solo movies of his own with mixed results, but for the first time, audiences had seen the true potential of the character. 'Avengers' director Joss Whedon recently spoke about the Hulk, his future in the Marvel movie universe and just how hard he is to get right.

Speaking from the Glasgow Film Festival (and reported by Yahoo Movies), Whedon commented that making a solo Hulk movie would a difficult endeavor, saying "...it would be very, very hard. Hulk is a tricky son of a bitch." Although he's on the ground floor of Marvel Studios, Whedon himself isn't so sure about the prospect of another Hulk movie and admitted that he's character that doesn't fit into the traditional superhero (and superhero movie) mold:

The problem is it's a very popular character, but it's not a superhero. Half of it's a superhero, half of it's a werewolf. And you can't structure it like a superhero movie, you can't light it like a superhero movie. How do you develop that? It would be extremely difficult. The one thing you would have in your favor would be Mark Ruffalo. But right now I don't know if they have plans to do that or not, because he works so well as part of a greater whole, but by himself, it's tough. I don't envy the guys who went before.

He's completely right. When Ang Lee made his wildly divisive 'Hulk' back in 2003, he compared the character to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and made his film a psychological drama that reflected that concept. It was interesting, but far from critically or commercially successful. The Hulk is a tough nut to crack. Louis Leterrier didn't fare too much better with his more action-centric 'The Incredible Hulk,' either.

In any case, Marvel's plans for the Hulk seem to be up in the air at the moment.

Once he exhausted the Hulk questions, Whedon chimed in about 'The Avengers 2' and his statement is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from the man who routinely kills everyone's favorite characters in his shows and movies: "Death, death and more death. I can't do any bigger, so I'm trying to do better."

'The Avengers 2' should hit theaters in 2015. We're guessing that solo Hulk film will hit sometime in the next decade. Possibly.