Where has the Hulk gone?

The superhero left the Avengers at the end of “Age of Ultron” and many wondered when he would make his return. Some suspected that Mark Ruffalo’s appearance on the “Captain America: Civil War” set signaled his return to the franchise right away, but Ruffalo has since denied the rumors.

“The reason is too great to be revealed in this movie [Civil War]. I was in the script but then they removed my character,” Ruffalo stated recently. “They don’t want to reveal where is he and why. I don’t even know if Hulk will be back soon.”

Then it was anticipated that his next appearance would come in the forthcoming “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but that rumor was shut down by the director himself.

“I will comment on it now (as I've done before) -- there is zero chance you will see Hulk in GotGVol2,” tweeted director James Gunn.

Gunn noted previously that he was uncomfortable shoehorning Thanos into the original “Guardians of the Galaxy” because it did not fit in organically with the rest of the narrative.

"There’s pressure with Thanos because you’re setting up this gigantic character that, in one way, isn’t really a part of your movie,” he stated earlier this year.

“His presence doesn’t really serve being in Guardians, and having Thanos be in that scene was more helpful to the Marvel Universe than it was to Guardians of the Galaxy. I always wanted to have Thanos in there, but from a structural standpoint, you don’t need him."

Throwing the big bad Hulk into the movie would be a similar move, giving the major character an appearance in a group that he simply does not fit well into.

The Hulk has been a contentious subject in cinema. He had a standalone film a few years ago starring Edward Norton but has never been the main man in his own movie since Ruffalo took over the character. He might disappear all the way until “Avengers: Infinity Wars,” which will not be released until 2018 and 2019. And even then there would be questions over which of the two episodes he would appear in.