After five years of living in a universe with half of all life erased by Thanos, the main heroes in Avengers: Endgame successfully collected the Infinity Stones from different points in time and brought them back to their present, where Bruce Banner/Hulk channeled their power to snap those who’d been dusted back to life. And luckily for some of the resurrected, they weren’t brought back in the exact same way as they were when they disappeared.
Shortly after Avengers: Endgame’s theatrical release, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige revealed that the people who could have died in accidents when they were snapped back were put in a safe place when Hulk snapped his Infinity Stones-powered fingers. Now Kevin Feige has elaborated on how this worked if one were in a plane when they turned to dust, saying:
Hulk may best known for his brawn, but because he and Bruce Banner merged together in the five years post-Avengers: Infinity War, he now has the brains too, making him “the best of both worlds.” His physicality made him qualified to use the Infinity Stones and survive the experience (though he still came out of it with a damaged arm), and his intellect ensured that the resurrection was carried out correctly.
Just like how Genie instructed Aladdin to be specific with his words when making a wish in the live action remake, as Kevin Feige explained to Empire, Hulk ensured that not only did he successfully bring everyone back, he made sure they were deposited back on safe ground. It would have been extremely depressing to learn that plane people who came back to life only proceeded to fall to their deaths seconds later.
While Thanos’ genocide at the end of Avengers: Infinity War was called The Decimation, Hulk carrying out the resurrection is known as The Blip, and we caught a glimpse of how these people returned in Spider-Man: Far From Home. But life didn’t go back to normal right away for these individuals.
Five years still passed in the MCU, so not only do the formerly-dusted (who, judging by Spider-Man’s reaction in Avengers: Endgame) have to put their lives back together almost entirely from scratch, but those who survived The Decimation also have to get used to the world being a much-more crowded place, though that’s a small price to pay for being reunited with your loved ones.
Of course, Hulk and his allies couldn’t celebrate the Green Goliath’s snap being successful right away, as the past version of Thanos and his army assaulted the Avengers base. While they were originally outnumbered, the dusted heroes came back with an army of allies to help turn the tide, and once Iron Man sacrificed his life to use the Infinity Stones himself, the threat of Thanos was finally eliminated for good.
Avengers: Endgame is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD, and while it remains to be seen if we’ll see Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk in the MCU again, we here at CinemaBlend will be sure to let you know if it’s announced he’ll return. For now, keep track of the new and established characters we’ll be seeing in the coming years with our Marvel movies guide.