10 Comic Book Movies You Didn't Know Were Linked

3. The Incredible Hulk Returns Did Thor: Ragnarok's Team-Up Almost 30 Years Earlier

The Incredible Hulk Returns Thor Ragnarok
NBC & Marvel Studios

Thor: Ragnarok received considerable critical acclaim for its unique buddy movie tone, best exemplified by its central two-hander between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).

The inspired pairing was also literally inspired, given that Ragnarok wasn't the first movie to team the two up for a thoroughly daft adventure.

Way back in 1988, almost 30 years prior, the two superheroes shared the screen for The Incredible Hulk Returns, a TV movie spin-off from the iconic Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno-starring TV series The Incredible Hulk.

The film itself sees The Hulk and Thor (Eric Kramer) forming an uneasy alliance to take down a criminal enterprise, and was actually intended to serve as backdoor pilot of sorts for a potential Thor TV series, which evidently never came to pass.

Though nobody's going to try and argue with a straight face that Ragnarok was actively trying to remake this relatively low-rent TV film, it nevertheless established a narrative and character framework not dissimilar to Ragnarok.

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