Here Is How Hulk Got to Sakaar in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’
Thor: Ragnarok was an exciting and fun movie, as we saw some of our beloved superheroes in a new light. A large portion of the movie’s storyline is happening in Sakaar, a distant planet where warriors are captured and forced to compete in gladiatorial battles for the entertainment of the Grandmaster. Interestingly enough, Hulk somehow ended up there and became the undefeated champion of the Grandmaster’s gladiatorial games during his stay there. But let’s see how Hulk got to Sakaar in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ in the first place.
Hulk ended up in Sakaar due to events that transpired at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Still in his monstrous form, Hulk jumps onto a flying Quinjet to destroy Ultron, who is onboard. After that, he turned off communications to avoid being tracked by his teammates. Hulk’s whereabouts remain unknown to the other Avengers until the events of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ where it is revealed that he has ended up on the distant planet of Sakaar. His spacecraft is discovered by a wormhole called the “Devil’s Anus,” which pulls it in and deposits it on Sakaar.
Ultron was probably the most fierce opponent that the Avengers faced before Thanos. Ultron had gone rogue and lifted a significant part of Sokovia city into the sky with the intention of crashing it back to Earth to cause an extinction-level event. The Avengers managed to prevent him from destroying the whole planet but did suffer some casualties along the way. Hulk boarded the Quinjet and decided to go into self-imposed exile which will lead to his unintentional arrival in Sakaar. Let’s see in detail how it all went down.
Hulk and Thor find themselves on opposite sides in the Contest of Champions
During Avenger’s endeavors to stop Ultron, Hulk jumped onto one of the flying Quinjets Ultron was in. He threw Ultron out of the Quinjet, and the plane continued flying without the pilot. After Avengers were successful, Black Widow contacted the Quinjet, which Hulk was in, and she wanted that Hulk turns the plane back and lands him safely. They couldn’t track Hulk’s Quinjet in stealth mode, so Natasha tried to instruct Hulk what to do. However, Hulk consciously turned the communication off and watched peacefully how Quinjet took him into the unknown.
It can be argued that Hulk knew what he was doing. The theory that makes the most sense is that Hulk deliberately turned the comms off so he could go somewhere where nobody knows where he is. That way, he would have his peace away from the people who see nothing but monsters in him. It is possible that it was Hulk’s way of saving the people from his own destructive nature.
Anyhow, the exact Hulk’s whereabouts remained unknown up until the events in ‘Thor: Ragnarok.’ The movie’s storyline follows Thor, the god of thunder, as he tries to prevent Ragnarok, the prophesied destruction of his home world, Asgard. Thor was trying to flee Hela, so he fell out of the Bifrost and ended up on Sakaar. There, Valkyrie, who was working as a bounty hunter for Grandmaster, captured Thor as she found him as a potential contender and brought him to the Grandmaster’s arena to fight as a gladiator.
Thor was restrained with an inhibitor disk, so he had no choice but to participate in the Contest of Champions, a gladiatorial competition where warriors from across the universe battle for their lives. Before he even stepped into the arena, he was warned by Korg and others that the champion he was fighting was not to be messed with. As Thor entered the arena for his match, he discovered that the champion he must face was none other than the Hulk.
Hulk has been the undefeated champion of the Grandmaster’s gladiatorial games since he arrived in Sakaar, and everyone loved him there. It was a delightful change for Hulk, considering that everyone feared him and considered him a threat on Earth. Nevertheless, Thor was delighted when he saw that Hulk was his opponent as he thought that Hulk will recognize him and there would be no need for the fight. But, he was wrong.
The two provided a spectacular fight for the entire audience in the arena. Thor almost defeated Hulk, but the Grandmaster prevented that by electrocuting Thor.
How did Hulk get to Sakaar in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’?
After their battle ended, Thor and Hulk found themselves in the same room. Hulk could now talk even when in his monstrous form, so the two of them started talking. Thor wanted to know how Hulk ended up on Sakaar, and Hulk answered that he had arrived in the Quinjet. Thor planned to use the Quinjet to escape from Sakaar back to Asgard and wanted to take Hulk with him. But Hulk wanted to stay on Sakaar.
However, when Thor and Hulk got into the Quinjet, the Hulk heard Nat’s recorded message and turned back into Bruce Banner after being in the Hulk form for two years. Banner was confused and disoriented but managed to access Quinjet’s ship’s log. In that log, it is implied that the Quinjet, which was designed for interstellar travel, somehow ended up in space, carrying Hulk with it. Eventually, Hulk’s spacecraft was discovered by a wormhole called the “Devil’s Anus,” which pulled the Quinjet in and deposited it on Sakaar.
Banner and Hulk eventually formed a team called ‘Revengers’ and escaped from Sakaar. Alongside Valkirye, Loki, and Korg, they confronted Hela on Asgard. They managed to defeat Hela by releasing Surtur, a mighty fire demon who destroyed Asgard and Hela in the process.
So, to conclude, Hulk ended up in Sakaar by accident when he traveled in space in Quinjet after the battle against Ultron in Sokovia. The Quinjet was pulled through one of the wormholes, most likely the ”Devil’s Anus” and crashed on Sakaar. Even though Hulk and the rest of ‘The Revengers’ left Sakaar, Hulk will return to that planet again in a few years. As it turns out, while Hulk spent two years on Sakaar, he fathered a son, Skaar, who is then introduced to the audience in the TV show She-Hulk.
That being said, we will for sure get more explanation about what happened during Hulk’s stay in Sakaar in some of Marvel’s future projects.
