Marvel Has No Current Plans For Hulk or Black Widow Movies
There was a lot to digest out of today's major Marvel Event that saw the formal announcement of the eight films in Phase 3 including 'Black Panther' and 'Captain Marvel' spinoffs. But, with all these Avengers getting sequels and spinoffs, one has to wonder about two of the more popular characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe who are still left without their own films: Hulk and Black Widow. Despite the fact that audiences love both the characters, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said that they have no current plans to give either character their own solo movie.
The rumors of a Planet Hulk movie have persisted for over a year now, despite almost everyone at Marvel shooting them down. But, as we learn more about the future of the Marvel films, we continue to wonder whether Marvel might rethink that plan. In the 'Avengers 2' trailer, we see Iron Man at odds with Hulk and when we talked to Mark Ruffalo on the 'Avengers 2' set, he said there's "serious tension" between Banner and Hulk, and the former might not be able to control the latter.
Sadly though, Feige once again took an opportunity to declare that Hulk, while an important part of their other films, particularly the 'Avengers' movies, wouldn't be getting his own movie.
Black Widow was once thought to be the most likely character to be Marvel's first female superhero movie. Despite the fact that Feige has previously said they're "developing" a Black Widow movie, he said today that, like Hulk, there are no plans for her own movie.
Marvel and Feige clearly seem to think that the success of both of these characters are due in no small part to their interactions with the other Avengers in the larger movies. Earlier this year, Feige told Badass Digest re: Widow, "With [her] what’s great is the interaction with all the team members, and the question is whether we want to pluck her out of that."
The same seems to go for Hulk as Marvel clearly is skittish about another solo movie after two disastrous attempts (admittedly ones produced outside of Marvel Studios at Universal Pictures). Could Marvel insert Hulk into another movie, not unlike what they're doing with Iron Man and 'Captain America: Civil War'? It certainly would make sense to have Hulk maybe appear in a 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie if Hulk got shot into space, Planet Hulk style, but James Gunn has already shot that rumor down.
We have to think that if there were no Hulk or Black Widow announcements in this batch of films, which effectively end one major arc of storytelling, then there probably won't ever be any Hulk or Black Widow announcements. It may be time to finally admit that there are some Avengers who just aren't going to get their own movies.