Thor: Ragnarok kicks off new story ark for Hulk

Mark Ruffalo will make his long-awaited return as the Incredible Hulk in Thor: Ragnarok, which will also commence a three-movie story ark for the character.

Speaking with IGN, Ruffalo revealed that Bruce Banner will continue to evolve throughout his next couple appearances in the MCU.

“The anger is no longer the only reason that he turns into the Hulk,” he said. “So now we have this other thing going on between them that will carry out through the next two movies. This is the beginning of a three-movie arc.”

Ruffalo went on to explain that this trilogy of sorts is a way of compensating for the fact that we’ll likely never see another standalone Hulk movie.

“Kevin brought me in and he said, ‘What would you do if you could do a standalone Hulk movie?’ I said, ‘I think it should be this, this, this, and this, and it should end like this,'” Ruffalo explained. “And he said, ‘How about if we do that — love that — let’s do that starting with Thor 3 and end in Avengers 3, and we’ll use those three movies to basically do a standalone Hulk movie. How about that?’ I was like, ‘That sounds great.'”

Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters on November 3, 2017.