Cast member Mark Ruffalo poses at the european premiere of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" at Westfield shopping centre, Shepherds Bush, London April 21, 2015.
Cast member Mark Ruffalo poses at the european premiere of "Avengers: Age of Ultron" at Westfield shopping centre, Shepherds Bush, London April 21, 2015. Reuters/Stefan Wermuth

“Captain America: Civil War” will be having the Hulk after all, actor Anthony Mackie has let slip. Mackie, who plays Falcon in the Marvel universe films, has said Mark Ruffalo did great acting in the upcoming film.

On Friday, in an interview with BBC Radio 1’s “Movies with Ali Plumb,” Mackie may have accidentally revealed the Hulk will be appearing in “Captain America: Civil War,” despite almost everyone, including Ruffalo himself, denying the Hulk’s appearance.

“Having seen the movie, it’s Marvel’s best movie so far. And I’m being honest. If a Marvel movie sucks, a movie in the Marvel universe, I’ll tell you it sucked. I feel like ‘The Winter Soldier’ and ‘Iron Man 1’ are probably Marvel’s two best movies, and I feel like (Civil War) beats both of those movies. It’s really, really good,” Mackie praised the upcoming film.

“It’s because it’s more of an acting movie than an action movie. I feel like the story is very concise and interesting, and you get to see Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson and Mark Ruffalo and everybody just do really, really good acting. And there’s action in it. It’s just a great thing about being in a Marvel movie is they have really good actors. Don Cheadle is in the Marvel universe. … I think it might be the first superhero movie that might be up for Best Picture.”

Notice that he mentioned Ruffalo’s name? Why would he do that if Ruffalo wasn’t in the movie? As some fans theorise online, perhaps Ruffalo will appear in the post-credit scene, with the Hulk’s location finally discovered.

However, as other fans reason out, if the Hulk’s scene is just a cameo, then why would Mackie praise Ruffalo’s acting? Ruffalo must be in front of the camera a lot longer than a few seconds. Maybe not as long as Chris Evans (Steve Rogers/Captain America) has, but definitely more time than a cameo, a scene where he can showcase his acting prowess.

Ruffalo previously gave fans hope that the Hulk would be in “Civil War” when he tweeted the start of production of the film. However, he cleared to Italian site Bad Taste (translation via The Wrap) that Marvel decided to cut his character out.

“I believed that [Hulk] would be in the film, but at the end, it was evident that they needed to reveal that the Hulk did something very significant, and that Marvel wanted to use this in a more upfront [manner],” he explained. “My character was inserted into the script, but it was later removed. Who knows, maybe Hulk will never return.”

As it can be remembered at the end of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the Hulk left in a Quinjet, turning off its tracking device despite Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow’s (Johansson) plea that he come back to them. His location is currently unknown.

The Hulk’s appearance might still be a mystery, but at least there’s a glimmer of hope that Ruffalo would be in the film. Chris Hemsworth, on the other hand, will certainly not be in it. His character, Thor, returned to Asgard at the end of the last film.

“Captain America: Civil War” stars Evans in the title role. It also includes most of the cast from the Marvel film series, including Downey Jr (Tony Stark/Iron Man), Johansson, Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier), Cheadle (James Rhodes/War Machine), Jeremy Renner (Clint Barton/Hawkeye), Paul Bettany (Vision), Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/Scarlett Witch), Paul Rudd (Scott Lang/Ant-Man) and Mackie. Frank Gillo, Daniel Brühl, Chadwick Boseman, Emily VanCamp and William Hurt also star.

It will be released in Australia on April 29, and in New Zealand on April 28, a week earlier than the US release date of May 6.

Listen to Mackie’s interview with “Movies with Ali Plumb”

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