Mark Ruffalo, in an interview with GQ promoting his role in the Oscar-nominated film Poor Things, discussed his long running role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ruffalo has portrayed the dual personalities of Bruce Banner and the Hulk since 2012’s The Avengers, replacing Edward Norton from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. 

Since 2012, Banner has appeared in many live-action Marvel projects, including starring roles in the four Avengers films and Thor Ragnarok, a recurring role in Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law series, as well as cameo appearances in Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Although Ruffalo’s Banner has appeared in the Marvel Universe for over ten years, he has never starred in a solo Hulk feature. Ruffalo had a sobering update for those fans hoping for a solo film. 

“I’d love to do a standalone Hulk,” shared Ruffalo, “I just don’t think that’s ever going to happen. It’s very expensive if you did a whole movie, which is why they use the Hulk so sparingly. I priced myself out!”

While Disney+ was able to pull off She-Hulk on Disney+, they used Jennifer Walters’ Hulk form very sparingly. Despite being an action-light law comedy, She-Hulk ended up costing about $25 million per episode—a combined budget higher than most Marvel films. In addition to complicated production rights issues with Universal, who produced The Incredible Hulk and Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk film, the idea of a solo Hulk project seems unrealistic.

Still, many fans are hoping to see the return of some of the MCU’s original heroes. Recent projects like Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania and Secret Invasion have been poorly received even by devoted fans, while others, like The Marvels, failed financially. Ruffalo also commented on Marvel’s recent troubles “I think the expansion into streaming was really exciting, but the thing about Marvel movies is you had to wait three years and that created a mystique.” Marvel has recently been working to retool their upcoming slate to reign in budgets and improve their overall quality. “These corrections could be really positive things,” Ruffalo added, “Will it be what it was? I don’t know.”

Still, Ruffalo reflects positively on his history with the franchise up until this point. ““I’m really proud of it. I’ve sat in movie theaters with the movies I’ve done with big directors. I’ve also experienced these Marvel movies with an audience and the amount of community and expression… it touched every single emotion. That means something to me. I don’t look down on it.”

Ruffalo’s future as Banner is still yet to be written. While some rumors, started by a miscommunication from Ruffalo, pointed to him appearing in next year’s Captain America: Brave New World, which is set to continue some plot lines from The Incredible Hulk, Variety clarified that he is not a part of the project. Still, a character as popular as Hulk is bound to show up again—most likely in the upcoming Avengers 5 (formerly known as The Kang Dynasty) or Avengers Secret Wars.