The Avengers : Age of Ultron

We’ve got some bad news for those of you excited by speculation that the plot of Marvel’s The Avengers 2 or The Avengers 3 would centre around the Planet Hulk storyline: Joss Whedon has confirmed exclusively to IGN that this will not be the case.

When we sat down with the director to talk about his upcoming version of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, we couldn’t resist asking if there was any truth to the rumours that future Avengers movies would make use of the Planet Hulk or World War Hulk storylines.

His reply, which can be watched in the above video, was, "Well I’m really not supposed to comment, but no, that’s nonsense."

Speculation that the next Avengers movie would be Hulk-centric began last month when Latino Review claimed that The Avengers 2 would end with Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk shipped off Earth by the MCU’s (Marvel Cinematic Universe) version of the Illuminati, which would in turn lead to one of Marvel’s Phase 3 movies being a live-action Planet Hulk film.

While it may be a bit disappointing to learn, it isn’t hugely surprising to hear that Marvel isn’t going to go ahead with the plot. We heard recently that an adaptation focusing on The Hulk rather than Banner would cause problems due to the lack of screentime afforded to Ruffalo, who has proved popular in the role.

So what does the future of Marvel movies have in store for us? Well, sadly, it looks like we’re pretty much back to square one in terms of concrete info, though that hasn’t stopped us speculating. Knowing Marvel and how tight-lipped the company tends to be, that’ll probably have to do for now, though Whedon has been talking about the films he’s looking to for inspiration.

"I’ve got the next story, and it’s a corker," Whedon revealed to the latest issue of Time Out London. "I haven’t even been thinking in terms of superhero movies. The films I’ve been thinking about are ’The Godfather Part II’ and ’The Empire Strikes Back’. Those are the stars by which I chart my course."