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Many people have forgotten that Universal Studios still controls the Hulk IP when it comes to Marvel Universe on film. That was confirmed in 2009 by Kevin Feige who at the time dropped a shocking revelation during the same conversation when he continued to say Universal Studios also controls the IP rights to Namor. Its been lead on that Universal may actually control the rights to a third IP but that has not been either officially confirmed or denied.
Even though a few ideas have been bandied about there is no official movement on any stand-alone films for these characters.
Since there are no movies in active development why are these IP not being returned to marvel Entertainment?
The agreement between Marvel Studios (Disney) and Universal Pictures that allows Hulk (and Thaddeus Ross) to appear in Marvel Studio Films stops the clock from winding for the return of these IP to Disney. In simple terms as long as these characters appear in a marvel film the time to release (or put into development) is either reset or stopped. The drop dead date is approximately 2023, but that could be pushed back by Hulk's incusion in Thor: Ragnarok and even further by Infinity War.
What about Planet Hulk?
Just to cover a few bases here, Planet Hulk is a story arc from the comics in which Tony Stark decided The Hulk is too dangerous to everyone on Earth so he banishes him to deep space. Bruce Banner/The Hulk ends up as a gladiator fighting for his survival on a gladiatorial planet.
I have heard rumors that the Planet Hulk story line was seriously considered by Universal both independently and in conjunction with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the worry of rate of return and interference with Universal other IPs.
What's "rate of return" and how does that effect whether or not I get my Hulk movie?
When you invest money into a project you have an expectation to see some, all, or more of that money come back. So if Disney invests $250M into Captain America: Civil War they expect the movie to return about $750M back or an ROR of 3 to 1. According to the rumors Universal ran the number and the best solution was 1.25 to 1. And that was limiting the movie to $150 M budget. Marvel Studios is in a similar boat, their ROR was a little higher but not much, not enough to green light a movie.
But the Hulk is mean green and fighting machine that many people want to see!
In 2003 Universal released Ang Lee's Hulk and in 2008 the soft reboot/sequel Incredible Hulk directed by Louis Leterrier both of which technically are a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Both movies lost money in the theaters, not a lot of money, but they still lost money. With DVD/BluRay sales and TV rights they probably made a few dollars.
For a moment I would like to overlook the obvious plot holes and deviations from the comics and focus on a major problem both films had. The inability to block/frame/execute a Hulk fight scene properly. Its a common problem is Super Hero films, just look at Batman, Thor, X-Men Last Stand and the list goes on and on. People are willing to overlook many failures if you have a kick-ass fight sequence, but so few people in Hollywood seem to have that ability. Tim Miller with a background in visual effects may have paved the way for the next generation of Comic Book Action Film Makers, but they are not here yet. Marvel is currently taking chances on many new and upcoming directors in the next round of films, Taika Waititi will be directing Thor: Ragnarok, Emily Carmichael for Captain Marvel, Jon Watts for Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the most experienced director Ryan Coogler for Black Panther.
Agents of Smash?
Universal purchased the IP for Hulk after it changed hands a couple of times in the late 1990's. The IP is fairly limiting in the number of characters available to Unviersal without an agreement from Marvel on additional characters. A-Bomb, Red-Hulk, She-Hulk, and Skaar all are controlled by Marvel Studios, at least that is my understanding. The same problem also extends to villains and supporting characters, Universal controls Abomination and the Leader but beyond those two characters it becomes a very murky gray area.
Little is known on exactly how the IP divides up the Marvel Universe when it comes to Namor other than Universal controls the IP when it comes to film rights. Namor is an alpha-mutant but is separate from the X-Men, created in 1939 he is one of the oldest Comic Book Characters. He has had dealings with Hellfire Club, the X-Men, Norman Osborne, Alpha Fight, Avengers, the Cabal.
I have a feeling it may take a legion of lawyers to determine exactly what Universal can and cannot do with this IP. And I doubt at the moment Universal even wants to try.
Status Quo
In the end Universal Studios appears to be very happy with the status quo. As long as things continue as they are there is no reason to make changes. Universal has 50 movies already announced through 2019, many of which we could call franchise films (in comparison Disney has 42, Warner Bros. 53 and 20th Century 47) I doubt there schedule would work unless they thought they could make a large fortune.
