Mark Ruffalo Starts Filming Spider-Man 4 as Fans Realize Bruce Banner Hasn't Hulked Out Onscreen in 13 Years

Marvel quietly pulled a magic trick: it has been more than 13 years since we actually watched Bruce Banner turn into the Hulk on screen. Not Hulk showing up after a cut. Not Smart Hulk already in the room. A full-blown, in-front-of-your-eyes transformation. Yeah, it has been that long.

The last time Hulk truly Hulked out on camera

You have to go back to 2012 and The Avengers. That famous street scene — Banner drops the 'I am always angry' line and morphs right there, with the CG doing all the heavy lifting — is the first and, so far, last time Mark Ruffalo's Bruce Banner visibly transforms into the Hulk in the MCU.

Everything since has skipped the money shot

Since then, Banner and/or Hulk have popped up all over, but the actual metamorphosis keeps happening off camera. If you have felt like Marvel has been dodging the transformation, you are not alone — fans on Reddit have been trading notes and receipts.

'It is like if they only had a single on-screen instance of Iron Man getting in or out of his suit.'

• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015): Banner loses control and Hulk rampages, but we do not get the mid-morph moment — it is implied or cut around.
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018): No on-screen change. Hulk refuses to come out; Banner fights in the Hulkbuster.
• Avengers: Endgame (2019): We meet Smart Hulk already merged. Any Banner-to-Hulk shift happens between scenes, not in front of us.

Why keep skipping it?

The fan theory is simple and, honestly, pretty logical: rendering a full transformation is expensive and time-consuming. If Marvel is tightening post-production belts, a big, complex morph is one of the first flashy shots you ditch without breaking the story. The result: you cut away, and Hulk just... appears later.

Smart Hulk muddies the waters

There is also the in-universe wrinkle. Bruce has been living in that Smart Hulk state, and when he wants to be Bruce again, he has occasionally used a device to suppress the Hulk side. That setup does not exactly invite a primal, dramatic 'Hulk-out' — it is more flip-a-switch than tear-the-shirt. So, will we ever get that classic, painful-looking change again? It is not impossible, but the current version of the character does not naturally build to it.

What is next, and could that be the moment?

Ruffalo is reportedly filming for the next Spider-Man movie, which is being referred to as Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Nobody seems sure how Hulk factors into Tom Holland's fourth Spidey outing, but if there is a place to stage a crowd-pleasing transformation, a summer Spider-Man movie would be it. The film is currently slated for July 31, 2026.

And the next Avengers situation

As of now, Ruffalo is said to not be lined up for a team-up in a project circulating under the title Avengers: Doomsday. Reports also claim Chris Hemsworth is in, and that Robert Downey Jr. would be back — this time not as Tony Stark, but as Doctor Doom. For the record: Marvel has not officially confirmed those details, so treat them as moving-target intel until we hear it from the studio.

Bottom line: 13 years is a long time to bench one of the MCU's signature visuals. If Marvel ever wants to make a theater go quiet and then scream again, letting Bruce actually Hulk out on screen would do it in a heartbeat.