Marvel just dropped that marathon five-hour cast roll-out for Avengers: Doomsday, and yes, the internet immediately noticed the Hulk-sized absence. Mark Ruffalo finally addressed it, and in true Ruffalo fashion, he made the whole thing a joke about himself leaking secrets.
Ruffalo on why he is not in the Doomsday roll-out
On The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Fallon asked the four-time Oscar nominee why he was not in the Avengers trailer/cast reveal. Ruffalo, with the exact kind of smirk you’re imagining, blamed... himself.
'They decided that it was better to get rid of me than for me to tell the end of the next movie.'
Fallon basically said, yeah, fair, and then they both plunged into an ice-dunking challenge because late-night TV is still late-night TV. Also, Ruffalo is 57, which somehow makes the ice plunge both funnier and more terrifying.
The guy has a history (and Marvel knows it)
This is a very inside-baseball gag because Ruffalo really does have a track record of giving away MCU surprises before Marvel is ready. Here is the greatest-hits tour:
- July 2017: While promoting Avengers: Infinity War, he casually telegraphed that a whole bunch of heroes would die. Not subtle.
- October 2017: He accidentally live-streamed the start of Thor: Ragnarok from a premiere, broadcasting roughly 20 minutes of the movie’s audio to fans a month before release. Legendary whoops.
- 2018: He blurted out the then-secret title of Avengers 4, which we all now know as Endgame.
- April 2019: In an interview, he let slip that Captain America ends up married to Peggy Carter in Avengers: Endgame.
Will we see Hulk in Doomsday?
We have not actually seen Ruffalo’s Hulk throw down since 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. He is set to pop back up as Bruce Banner in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but Marvel is keeping it foggy on whether he shows up in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday. Between the conspicuous no-show in that mega-length cast reveal and Ruffalo’s spoiler gremlin history, Marvel might be playing this one extra close to the vest.
So, for now: cast list speculation rages on, Ruffalo is in on the joke, and Marvel seems content to keep Hulk smash-ing expectations offscreen a little longer.