Two of the MCU by saying the studio wanted to "save" one of the original Avengers characters for just the Avengers films, with the others appearing in their own solo films (Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America) or the films of other (Black Widow and Nick Fury in Captain America: The Winter Soldier). In October, again on a solo film, Feige said, "We'll see. We'd love to do it, we'd love to find the place to put it", but that the character would make appearances in other character's films in Phase Three. In April 2015, Ruffalo said Universal holding the distribution rights to Hulk films may be an obstacle to releasing a future Hulk standalone film, and later reiterated this in October, and July 2017. Marvel regained the film production rights for the character since February 2006, but Universal retained the distribution rights for The Incredible Hulk as well as the right of first refusal to pick up the distribution rights to each of any future Marvel-produced Hulk films. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a potential reason why Marvel has not reacquired the film distribution rights to the Hulk as they did with Paramount Pictures for the Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America films is that Universal holds the theme park rights to several Marvel characters that Marvel's parent company, Disney, wants for its own theme parks. In December, Ruffalo stated that the strained relationship between Marvel and Universal may be another obstacle to releasing a future standalone Hulk film. By August 2022, reports believed it was possible Marvel Studios would regain the distribution rights to the character from Universal in 2023; this was due to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings from Marvel Entertainment that indicated Universal had agreed to distribute The Incredible Hulk under the same terms Marvel agreed to with Paramount, which held distribution rights for 15 years from its first release. At that time, Ruffalo noted there had been conversations around exploring the two-year time period of Hulk arriving on Sakaar, as well as how Banner and Hulk were able to integrate to become Smart Hulk. He was also open to adapting more of Planet Hulk or World War Hulk, which he said the fans were hoping to see. MCU director James Gunn expressed interest in doing a film featuring both Hulk and Red Hulk, but the project never entered development due to conflicts with Universal.