WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame, in theaters now.
While the Hulk might his triumphant return in Avengers: Endgame, the minds behind the movie weren't really sure how to bring him into the action for quite some time.
When talking about the Hulk's introduction, screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely said that Professor Hulk was supposed to debut in Avengers: Infinity War.
However, they said that at that time, it didn't feel right to give Hulk an "up moment" when everyone else was down. As a result, the Smart Hulk's introduction was pushed off to Avengers: Endgame and was revealed at the diner scene, with Scott Lang serving as a confused surrogate for audience members.
In a new interview with the Los Angeles Times, the writers said that the Hulk almost had another introduction they planned to use but ended up scrapping that as well.
"We did have a scene illustrating more actively what the Hulk had been up to in terms of being a hero, as opposed to just starting it in the diner and explaining things," Markus said.
Instead of introducing Professor Hulk at the diner with Captain America, Black Widow and Ant-Man, Hulk could've been introduced through a montage that showed how he became a national hero.
"But it didn’t give you anything that you didn’t get from just sitting in the diner eating pancakes. And it came off more as noise than as content."
McFeely agreed and said that the scene only did one thing, so it probably wasn't worth being in the movie with so many moving parts.
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Don Cheadle as War Machine, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Danai Gurira as Okoye and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with Gwyneth Paltrow Pepper Potts, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Benedict Wong as Wong, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Josh Brolin as Thanos.