Avengers: Infinity War’s ending was originally going to be very different. One different element of the third act was that Banner was going to turn into Smart Hulk right when he was battling Cull Obsidion. It was being set up throughout the film as Hulk kept on denying to emerge, only to work it out with Banner in the last second. This scene was released with the Infinity Saga Box set. Take a look:
Yes, we were supposed to see how Banner would’ve turned into the smart goliath. He wouldn’t have just dropped on the screen like he did in Endgame. But, writers of Infinity War and Endgame, Christopher Marcus & Stephen McFeely revealed that they had to cut out this scene because it didn’t work. Christopher Markus talked about the transformation scene saying:
“We wrote it, we shot it, and went on to shoot most of Endgame, and he achieved union with the Hulk while inside the Hulkbuster. It didn’t work. We had already shot Endgame, where he was already smart Hulk.”
Considering that we all had scene Hulk running in the money shot of the first Avengers: Infinity War trailer and then we saw a merchandise photo showing how he emerges from the Hulkbuster armor, we were actually a bit disappointed. If the Smart Hulk scene would’ve taken place right before Thanos arrived, then we would’ve seen Hulk going against Thanos 2 more times. First it would’ve been on Wakanda, and then it would’ve been at the Garden. But we got the revelation that this scene was also deleted because it would have shown us a sense of victory for Banner, and even the Avengers in a moment of defeat. So, it just didn’t work.
But, the good thing is that it has been set up for a future project like She-Hulk, which could show us a flashback of how Banner turned into Smart Hulk having spent 18 months in a Gamma Lab. Let’s see what happens.
