What's Going On With Marvel And The Hulk?

I think that this is a valid question, and one that should be addressed.  For a while now, there have been rumors that near the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron, the Hulk will somehow get caught up in some sort of rocket, and go flying out into space.  This has led to speculation that there may be a Hulk/Guardians of the Galaxy meeting in the latter's sequel.  But like I said, this has all just been rumors...

...but I've recently read a couple of things that seem to give validity to these rumors.  The first one is somewhat discreet.  I was looking at the list of characters that are set to appear in the upcoming Captain America: Civil War movie, and here's a list of the people signed up for it:

Scarlett Johansson
Robert Downey, Jr.
Chris Evans
Jeremy Renner
Sebastian Stan
Anthony Mackie

Notice anyone in particular missing?  We know that Thor will be dealing with his own thing in the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok which is set to be released in 2017.  But where's Doctor Banner?  The other thing that makes this rumor seem a little more valid was an interview that was given to the cast of the Avengers by IGN, and the prospect of a Planet Hulk movie was raised, and here's what Mark Ruffalo had to say on the matter:

Mark Ruffalo: "I think there's a lot of places to go with him [Hulk]."

Scarlett Johansson: "Like where?"

IGN: "Space?"

Ruffalo: "Well he's going to space.  Yeah, I mean there's some talk of maybe Planet Hulk."

IGN: "Would you like to see that?"

Ruffalo: "I'd be completely interested in entertaining that."

So...did he just give away that the Hulk is going into space?  Are the rumors about his fate at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron valid?  Here's something else that Ruffalo revealed.  Do you know why we haven't seen a stand alone Hulk film since his break out performance in The Avengers?  Marvel doesn't have the distribution rights to the character.  Those rights still belong over at Universal Studios.  Now, thy could make a stand alone Hulk film,but they'd have to cede some of the distribution profits to Universal, and I don't know if they have the same "friendly" relationship with one another like Marvel has with Sony.

So for the time being, it looks like we'll just have to enjoy seeing the Hulk pop up in other character's movies until Marvel can get Universal to sell back his rights.  Mark Ruffalo still has at least four more appearances as the Hulk left in his contract, so don't fear, the Jade Giant won't be going away any time soon!

Avengers: Age of Ultron hits theaters May 1, 2015.