Mark Ruffalo Finally Tackles the Biggest Concern About Smart Hulk in Avengers Doomsday
Avengers: Doomsday is barely a year out, and fans are sweating the silence on returning heroes — especially whether Mark Ruffalo’s Smart Hulk will smash back into the lineup.
Marvel being Marvel, we are now in the part of the Avengers: Doomsday cycle where the trailer drops, the internet spirals, and everyone asks where half the team went. Top of that list: Mark Ruffalo. He finally addressed his MIA status, and yes, he did it the Mark Ruffalo way.
Ruffalo on not being in the trailer
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Fallon asked why Ruffalo is nowhere to be found in the Avengers trailer. Ruffalo, now canonically Smart Hulk since Endgame, smirked and went for the joke that also doubles as a plausible explanation:
"They decided it was better to get rid of me than for me to tell the end of the next movie."
Fallon basically nodded like, yeah, that tracks, and moved on. Honestly, not a terrible theory given Ruffalo’s track record with, you know, not keeping secrets.
Why Marvel might keep Ruffalo on a very short leash
Ruffalo’s spoiler history is kind of legendary. People always dunk on Tom Holland, but Ruffalo has quietly built a resume of oopsies that would make Kevin Feige sleep with his phone on airplane mode.
- July 2017: While hyping Avengers: Infinity War, he casually hinted that a bunch of heroes were going to die. Not wrong!
- October 2017: He accidentally live-streamed audio from the start of Thor: Ragnarok. Roughly the first 20 minutes made it to fans before someone told him to turn it off.
- 2018: He let the actual title of Avengers 4 slip early: Avengers: Endgame. That was a closely guarded secret at the time.
- April 2019: In an interview (via ComingSoon.net), he gave away the Steve-and-Peggy endgame — literally Steve Rogers marrying Peggy Carter.
To be fair, a lot of people thought he was joking in the moment, so the damage wasn’t catastrophic. Holland wears his spoilers on his face; Ruffalo sneaks them in like a dad who thinks he’s being subtle.
The internet response: merciless, but funny
Once the Fallon bit hit social, fans on X did what fans on X do — roasted him with love. The general vibe: if Marvel benched him from the trailer, that’s fair. People joked that Ruffalo’s greatest superpower isn’t smashing, it’s leaking scripts; that his mouth has more power than Thanos’ snap; that he spoiled his way out of the MCU; that sometimes the Hulk is the only thing between you and a plot twist; that he wasn’t cut from Avengers, just cut from the group chat. Also, yes, there were memes. Many memes.
So is Hulk actually in Doomsday?
Short answer: still not officially confirmed. The trailer absence doesn’t mean he’s out; Marvel loves hiding big pieces for the theatrical reveal. Ruffalo’s last proper MCU appearance was in 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and he is set to reprise the role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Whether he smashes his way into Avengers: Doomsday is still under wraps — maybe for security reasons, maybe because surprises still matter, maybe both.
Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters December 18, 2026. That’s a little over a year away, which in Marvel time is basically tomorrow and also forever. Place your bets: secret Hulk cameo, or Marvel keeping him on ice until the next team-up?