Avengers: Mark Ruffalo Talks About the Hulk's Evolution

This article contains spoilers for Avengers: Age Of Ultron. They won't be spoilers - save for one minor bit - if you've seen the trailers though.

The countdown to Joss Whedon's Avengers: Age Of Ultron continues and as part of the promotional work for the movie, Mark Ruffalo has been chatting about becoming the Hulk again.

"I think he's definitely matured a little bit since the last one," he told Empire. "He's become more acclimated to this thing and to being part of the team", noting too that "it's a much more character-driven version of The Avengers than the first one. It gets a little deeper into each character."

Ruffalo confirmed that "SHIELD is not happening anymore, so there's not that much time spent with the SHIELD stuff."

The trailers have already teased the Hulkbuster suit that Tony Stark wears to do battle with Ruffalo's raging ball of greenness, and the actor notes that "Bruce designed the contingency plan ... I still feel that there's some part of him that doesn't completely trust it and doesn't completely trust himself."

"He's definitely worred that the day is going to come when the Hulk gets the best of him, and maybe won't release him, maybe won't give him back."

And in the midst of all of this, Mark Ruffalo teased where the Hulk story would go next. Talking about how Hulk and Bruce Banner get better at impressing their will on each other, Ruffalo said that "it'll be interesting to see if that ends up being what would be the next Hulk movie."

A standalone Hulk movie isn't on Marvel's announced roster right now, so if it happens, it won't be until 2019 at the very earliest. Even then, Ruffalo concedes that "it's a tough nut to crack."

Our betting is that Hulk's future lies in Avengers movies, at least for the time being.

Empire.