It won't be too long before Spider-Man is swinging his way back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the upcoming fourth Spidey installment in the Marvel Studios franchise has seen a number of evolutions through the past few months. From the departure of the previous Spider-Man trilogy's director Jon Watts to the arrival of new director Destin Daniel Cretton (who also directed the MCU's Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings), there has been a lot going on for the webslinger's next installment.
Let's also not forget that Sony reportedly wanted the film to be another multiversal affair after the success of 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, which is rumored to have conflicted with Marvel Studios' plans to make Spider-Man 4 a more streetwise, grounded movie. And, with the film now being placed between two Avengers movies, it seems that Sony's wish is coming true.
However, it also sounds like there was another evolution as, according to a new report, a previous version of the film's script featured an MCU stalwart before they were cut from the story.
Spider-Man 4 rumored to have once included the Hulk in its script
According to a new report from well-established Marvel scooper account Marvel Updates, the Hulk was originally supposed to appear in Spider-Man 4, with the character reportedly featuring in an earlier version of the script before the decision was made to cut him out of it. And if this version of the film had gone ahead, it would have meant that franchise veteran Mark Ruffalo would have been appearing in it.
On paper, the idea of the Incredible Hulk appearing in a Spider-Man movie sounds odd (yes, they're both Avengers, but they barely interacted with each other and the Hulk isn't the first person you'd think of when it comes to a Spidey movie) but there could be some truth to it. Tom Holland's Spider-Man has thrived when it comes to taking advice from older, wiser, more established heroes, with each of his installments in the Spider-Man: Homecoming trilogy seeing him take advice from an MCU veteran.
Tony Stark. a.k.a. Iron Man, acted as a mentor to Peter in 2017's Homecoming, while Happy Hogan filled that role in 2019's Far From Home. Perhaps the most unexpected of all, however, was Doctor Strange - and the two Spider-Men from parallel earths - acting as a mentor to him in 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. Could Bruce Banner have been the next Avenger that he relied on?
If that was set to be the case, it was probably the right decision not to feature the character in Spider-Man 4. The whole purpose of the previous trilogy's conclusion was to see the webslinger set himself up for that comic-accurate path fans had been waiting to see, as he became a more independent hero, saving the residents of New York City like his comic book counterpart - something that we know he has been doing thanks to a recent reference to his heroic activities in Daredevil: Born Again.
Then again, if the upcoming film is set to be a multiversal film, perhaps Spidey could have run into an alternate version of the mean, green Avenger like Deadpool did in Deadpool and Wolverine. Or perhaps the film will give us our first glimpse of the Battleworld, in which Doctor Doom is expected to craft this merged world that he has control over in a bid to stop the destruction of the multiverse. If Avengers: Doomsday bows out with that cliffhanger, surely Spider-Man 4 will have to feature it in some capacity before Avengers: Secret Wars wraps the Multiverse Saga up.
Needless to say, seeing the Hulk in Spider-Man 4 would have been an interesting sight. All Marvel rumors should still be taken with a grain of salt, but given how the development of Spider-Man 4 has been full of changes and updates (with Holland himself even commenting that the script "needs work" back in September), it wouldn't be at all surprising if this report turned out to be true. Maybe we'll see Spidey vs. the Hulk in the multiverse some day.