One of the most interesting character arcs between Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War is Bruce Banner/Hulk’s transformation into Professor Hulk. Taking essentially two different characters and smashing them into one creates a exceptionally unique character arc; however, it’s one we never get to see take place on screen. With the digital release of Avengers: Endgame, the audio commentary for the film explained that at one point, the audience did get to see Banner and Hulk become Professor Hulk, but it actually wasn’t in this movie.
While the character’s transformation was a surprise for viewers in Endgame, originally, fans got to see the scene in Infinity War. “We called him Smart Hulk throughout the shoot,” explained screenwriter Steve McFeely during the commentary for Endgame. “The creation of Smart Hulk, used to take place in Infinity War. He was fighting in Wakanda. The whole arc of the story was Banner and Hulk were not getting along. Hulk wouldn’t come out to help him. And at his hour of greatest need, they make some sort of compromise, and Smart Hulk rips out of the [Iron Man] armor and beats the crap out of Cull Obsidian and destroys him. It was pretty clear that the movie could not handle this weird success. The movie needed to just stay in its succession of losses in the third act, which meant some hustling on the part of VFX late in the game.”
That scene was part of the movie until late in post-production. “Cutting that out was a decision made during the editing process on Infinity War, by which point we had already shot Endgame,” screenwriter Chris Markus stated. Apparently, this was even shown to test audiences, and people had trouble accepting it. Director Anthony Russo went on to say that they didn’t have enough space to tell this story, as everything was happening so quickly during the climax of the film.
“Imagine before Thanos shows up, we had a scene where Hulk comes out of the bushes, and Natasha says, ‘Hey, big guy, sun’s getting low.’ And [Hulk] says, ‘Oh Natasha, that’s not… We don’t need that now,'” continued McFeely. “And speaks in perfect English, and you’re supposed to be kind of delighted and jarred by it, and then they’re all gonna get dusted. It was just tonally off.
“The Snap worked out for him in a way, right? He is his best self. He is sort of the last remaining superhero. Many [fans] want to take pictures with him in the diner. For most other people, I guess Tony aside, it didn’t work out… I think the core conflict of who Banner is, is that there are two characters fighting over a host body, and they hate each other, and that’s been the story with him for years. At some point, Banner, who’s an intelligent human being, decides, ‘What if we put the hate aside, and we try to resolve this in a way that is holistic?’ And he merges the two of them.”
Avengers: Endgame is available now digitally through various retailers. The home release contains the aforementioned audio commentary with the writers and directors of the film, as well as deleted scenes, numerous featurettes, and a gag reel. The 4K/Blu-ray version of the movie won’t hit stores until August 13.
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