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It’s been a big week for the Hulk. Variety reported that the film rights to the character have reverted to Marvel Studios, after being owned by Universal Pictures for the last fifteen years. The news has led fans to speculate over the possibility of a Hulk sequel, and critics to reassess the two Hulk films that were released in the 2000s.

Neither Hulk (2003) nor The Incredible Hulk (2008) were box office hits upon release, and both were subject to mixed reviews. It wasn’t until the Hulk was reintroduced and recast in The Avengers (2012) that moviegoers seemed to warm up to the green giant. He’s since become a fan favorite, but the complicated legal history of the character remains confusing. How do the Hulk films connect? What order are you supposed to watch them in? Let’s discuss.

For starters, Hulk and The Incredible Hulk are not connected. The former was intended to be a standalone film, while the latter was meant to be the second installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With that said, the smartest way to approach these two films is to watch them in the order they were released.

Hulk was a highly anticipated film. Ang Lee was a critically adored filmmaker and Eric Bana was a rising star who seemed perfect to lead a franchise. There was a sense that the film would mark another huge step forward for Marvel after the success of Spider-Man (2002) the year before. Unfortunately, Hulk fell short of expectations. It lost money at the global box office, and many felt that Lee’s psychologically-rooted drama clashed with the CGI mayhem. It has, however, gained a cult following in the years since, and outlets like Collider and GQ have run anniversary pieces praising the film’s bold approach.

What’s the right order to watch the Hulk movies?

The MCU timeline starts with The Incredible Hulk. The film hasn’t really held up as anyone’s favorite, but it does establish some important characters within the greater framework of the franchise, including the Abomination (Tim Roth) and Thaddius “Thunderbolt” Ross (William Hurt). These characters would prove crucial down the line, appearing in She-Hulk (2022) and Captain America: Civil War (2016), respectively.

Hulk is one of the few main characters who have been recast in the MCU, which only adds to the confusion about what’s canon and what’s not. Edward Norton may have been replaced by Mark Ruffalo in subsequent Avengers films, but everything Norton does in his film is still part of the Bruce Banner story.

This means that an accurate watch order for the Hulk films/shows would be:

Iron Man 3 is optional, as the character only appears in a post-credits scene, but it does establish what he gets up to between the events of the first two Avengers. It’s still unclear whether the MCU plans to move forward with another Hulk film, or whether they will continue to use Ruffalo as a supporting character in other sub-franchises. 

Either way, the rights change means that The Incredible Hulk is streaming on Disney Plus, so you can now run through the entire Hulk timeline without any complications!

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