The strongest Avenger might appear in Deadpool & Wolverine

Deadpool & Wolverine is sending the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s rumor mill into overdrive, and a new bit of buzz has given it even more juice. If Tweets from a trusted leaker, Ryan Reynolds, and the film’s director are trustworthy, the Incredible Hulk will make a smashing cameo appearance in Deadpool & Wolveri

Deadpool & Wolverine insiders have been dropping Hulk hints for months

The first hint that the Incredible Hulk might appear in Deadpool & Wolverine came from an X (formally known as Twitter) user named Holyfield News. This supposed MCU insider is known for making spicy (and accurate) predictions about upcoming Marvel films. In a tweet posted on June 30, Holyfield News claimed that Hugh Jackson’s Wolverine would go claws-to-fists with the Incredible Hulk.

HolyField New’s prediction aligns with comments the leaker made in a post they wrote back in March, in which they claimed that Hulk would appear in Deadpool and Wolverine and that Mark Ruffalo, who’s played the MCU version of Bruce Banner since 2012, would return to fill in the role.

While the word a leaker with no public identity comes with more than a few grains of salt, Holyfield News isn’t the only one teasing that the Hulk will show up and throw his big, green hands in Deadpool & Wolverine. Shawn Levy, the film’s director, expressed his interest in seeing Ruffalo’s Hulk cross paths with Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool, albeit in an underhanded way.

Ruffalo and Reynolds previously worked together under Levy in The Adam Project, and the director posted a promotional image of the two stars together. Interestingly, Reynolds and Ruffalo are next to a Rubbermaid cooler with a sticker of the Incredible Hulk and Deadpool’s logo. The first comment on the post is a cryptic statement from Levy, who refers to the picture as “The showdown we’ve been waiting for…”

Levy posted his little tease over a year before Marvel and Disney unveiled Deadpool & Wolverine, so it’s about as far from an official confirmation as it gets. However, Ruffalo has worked with Levy on other films, including All the Light We Can See and Date Night, so the two have an established relationship that could clear the way for Ruffalo’s Hulk to appear in Deadpool & Wolverine.

Wolverine and Hulk have a long-standing rivalry in comics that Marvel fans have been waiting to see on film for years

Most comic fans associate Wolverine with the X-Men, but his first appearance in The Incredible Hulk #181 saw him go toe-to-toe with the titular green-skinned brute. While the two have since mended fences and fought side-by-side, they just as often come to blows, locked in an eternal struggle to see who’d win in a real fight.

“Who’d win, Wolverine or Hulk?” is a debate that Marvel fans have been perpetuating for decades, and Jackman and Ruffalo have given their thoughts on it before. In an interview with Sirius XM, posted on ComicBook.com, Jackman complimented Ruffalo’s take on the Hulk but asserted Wolverine would win. Ruffalo also expressed his desire to see Hulk and Wolverine fight it out on the big screen in an interview with The Marvelists.

With Jackman and Ruffalo voicing their support, it’s safe to say that the odds of Hulk and Wolverine throwing down in Deadpool & Wolverine are looking pretty high. Of course, we’ll have to wait until the movie hits theaters in July to see if the fight Marvel fans have been waiting for happens.