Ever since the Hulk smashed his way onto our movie screens, people have longed to see his grey counterpart, tear his own path of destruction through the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Rumours and theories of Grey Hulk appearing in the MCU are not a new thing, but as we come closer to the release of Avengers Infinity War (or rather, the release comes closer to us!), I’m getting a feeling that Bruce Banner’s grey alter-ego might finally show up.
Just a quick warning of potential spoilers for Avengers Infinity War coming right up. That’s hoping my theories are true!
Some speculation is abound that Banner will be unable to convert into the Hulk throughout most of Infinity War. They theorise that Thanos will use the Infinity Gauntlet to render Banner unable to transform into the Hulk when he boards the Asgardian refugee ship which we see happen at the end of Thor Ragnarok. This is why many are theorising that Banner’s the one piloting the Hulkbuster armour in Wakanda in the trailers. This is largely based on Infinity War toy sets people have seen advertised.
If the green Hulk has been repressed, perhaps it’s the perfect opportunity for Grey Hulk to make a grand entrance?!
However, we do see the Hulk in his green form in the line-up charging towards the forces of Thanos later on. See below.
Captain America leads the Marvel heroes into battle in Avengers Infinity War.
What if this was a trick pulled by the marketing team to hide the Grey Hulk from audiences? In the publicity for Thor Ragnarok, it was well hidden from us that the God of Thunder lost an eye. Why wouldn’t they use visual effects trickery a second time to convince us we’re getting a visit from the not-so-jolly green giant, rather than the grey one?
I admit that I don’t have much to go off on this theory other than speculation, but it has been revealed that Grey Hulk was originally intended to appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron. According to ILM:
Initially, Hulk was actually planned to turn grey when he is angry Hulk in the Hulkbuster sequence, but hey, everybody wanted the green guy. So in the end, ILM just changed his eyes to make them look more sullen when he is under the control of Scarlet Witch.
This also ties into the intended multiple movie arc which is set to play out for Mark Ruffalo’s Banner/Hulk over this recent outings in the MCU. Thor Ragnarok, Infinity War and Avengers 4 are all supposed contain a three-movie arc for Hulk and Banner. What’s better than to include Grey Hulk in that? Ruffalo says:
Hulk speaking is the start to separating of these two individuals, these identities in this split-identity person, and where that’s going to end up going.
All this talk of split-personalities is making me think they’ve got something planned for Grey Hulk along the line.
Galaxy Fantasy Blog 