It goes without saying that the events of Avengers: Endgame will have a huge impact on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In fact, we’ve already seen how the film is playing an important role (in more ways than one) in Spider-Man: Far From Home via the new trailer for the sequel arriving this summer. But one character will have to figure out how to contend with a different kind of permanent change, and that’s The Hulk. And we’re not just talking about just being emotionally scarred either.

During a live Q&A event with ComicBook.com reporter Brandon Davis, co-director Joe Russo was asked about the injury sustained by the Hulk when using the makeshift Iron Gauntlet to snap everyone back to life, undoing what Thanos did in Avengers: Infinity War. At the end of the movie we see his arm in a sling during Tony Stark’s funeral, and it appears this isn’t something he’ll be able to heal from. Joe Russo explained:

“He’s lost an arm. He lost Natasha. That’s not coming back. He’s damaged himself. I don’t know. It’s interesting. That’s permanent damage, the same way that it was permanent damage with Thanos. It’s irreversible damage. His arm, if you noticed, is a lot skinnier. It’s blackened. So, he loses a lot of strength there.”

Does that mean we won’t be seeing Hulk return to action anytime soon? Honestly, we’re not sure when we will see Hulk on the big screen again since all of the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe titles we’ve heard about don’t really seem to have a need for Hulk to be involved. Will the next time we see him be whenever there’s another assembly of The Avengers? When will that even be? And if that happens, maybe we’ll only see Hulk working in the background as the big brain behind the team.

However, even though Joe Russo calls this injury permanent damage, he does leave open the possibility that someone could come along and help him figure out how to heal it. Russo said:

“But who knows? There’s a lot of smart people left. Maybe someone helps him repair that. Maybe someone gives him a new arm. I have no idea where that character goes from here. The nice thing is we didn’t have to pay attention to where it goes after this, we just try to tell a satisfying ending.”

There’s always a chance Doctor Strange could help the Hulk in some way. After all, he struck a friendly chord with The Ancient One and maybe even gained her trust in the end, so maybe he’ll have some kind of bond with Stephen Strange. But there’s always a chance that a character who hasn’t been introduced yet could help him too, maybe another genius like Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. Since Marvel Studios now controls a whole new roster of superheroes, anything is possible.