Here Is How Hulk Got to Sakaar in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (& How Long Was He There)

The Hulk is one of the most popular characters in the MCU (we’re going to pretend like Smart Hulk never happened), and his story has more depth than some of the other heroes’ stories. So, after Age of Ultron, the Hulk disappeared only to miraculously appear on the planet Sakaar in Ragnarok. Many fans have wondered as to how Hulk got to Sakaar.

What happened to Hulk after Age of Ultron?

We know that after the catastrophic events of Age of Ultron, that destroyed Sokovia, the Hulk disappeared. He took the Quinjet and disappeared, not telling anyone where he was going. We knew he was going off the grid since he explained that the Quinjet’s stealth mode would hinder the Avengers from tracking him.

The exact reasons and motives for this act are still unclear, but we suppose they have something to do with the traumatic experience in Sokovia. He then disappeared for a total of two years before we saw him again in Thor: Ragnarok.

As far as it is now known, the Hulk completely took over Banner’s body and closed off Banner for a total of two years. He flew off from Earth in the Quinjet and eventually landed on the planet Sakaar, which the Grandmaster runs. There, the Hulk became a gladiator and Grandmaster’s prized champion, defeating every challenger until Thor finally arrived at the beginning of Ragnarok.

How did Hulk get to Sakaar?

And while Hulk’s exact motives for his disappearance are unclear, there is one even bigger mystery in his story – how did he end up on Sakaar? Namely, the scrap planet run by Grandmaster is located on the far side of the galaxy. It is highly unlikely that Hulk landed there willingly or by simply traveling through space and exploring it. This planet’s junk heap is too far away and unwelcoming to be a proper tourist destination for anyone, even the Hulk. So, what happened?

When Thor meets Hulk on Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, he – naturally – wonders how his friend arrived there. Since Banner was closed off for two years, he had no clue as to what had been happening, so he could not provide an answer for the Asgardian god. Hulk, on the other hand, despite developing a primitive vocabulary, couldn’t provide any explanation except a gesture symbolizing a crash. From that, we know that the Quinjet crashlanded on Sakaar at one point, but we have no details whatsoever.

The movie doesn’t further concern itself with this topic, opting for a simple, albeit detailless solution. We can assume that Hulk, while traveling through space, was sucked by a wormhole that caused the crash on Sakaar. Namely, Sakaar is surrounded by wormholes that deposit space waste (basically trash) on the planet. This is how the Grandmaster built his empire, which is the most probable explanation for Hulk crashlanding on the planet.

To further corroborate that, we have a statement from Ragnarok production designer Dan Hennah, who briefly explained Hulk’s arrival in an interview with Cinemablend:

“He hit one of those wormholes, and he ended up here.”

– Dan Hennah

This further confirms our suspicions and could be considered a canon fact despite not being confirmed by the movie itself. Still, this remains a rather simplistic explanation, although ultimately – the question doesn’t influence the plot much, so we can understand why the producers never bothered to provide a proper story for it.

How long was Hulk on Sakaar?

This question has confused fans for a while, and we can clearly state that this is a physics-related plot hole that you needn’t worry about. But will still explain it to you.

We know that Hulk left Earth on May 6, 2015, and that he left the planet on November 21, 2017. This means that, in Earth-centered time, he spent 930 days, which is about two and a half years. And that’s it. The end. Simple as that. Or?

This question seems simple, and it probably is if you’re observing it from an earthly perspective, but this point of view disregards one important factor – time doesn’t flow at the same pace on Sakaar as it does on Earth. Let us do a bit of math (courtesy of Ayush Goving on Quora):

This scene from Thor: Ragnarok shows us that Loki teleports at 2:17 and Thor at 2:27, which is approximately a 10-second difference.

Now, we have to assume that Δt1=10 seconds (s).

Later in the film, Loki mentions that he arrived in Sakaar approximately two weeks earlier than Thor. This leads us to the following numbers:

Δt2= 2 Sakaaran weeks= 2 x 7 x 24 x 60 x 60= 1,209,600 Sakaaran seconds (Ss)

Δt1=Δt2

⇒ 10 s= 1,209,600 Ss

⇒ 1 s= 120,960 Ss= 1.4 Sakaaran Days

This means that time flows 120,960 times faster on Sakaar. Therefore, 1 second on Earth is equal to 1 day and 10 hours on Sakaar. That’s an enormous difference, really.

Now, we’ve already established that Hulk spent 930 days on Sakaar, which means that:

Δt3 = 930 days = 2.54 years

And that would mean that the total time the Hulk spent on Sakaar is:

Δt3 x 120,960= 930 x 120,960= 112,492,800 days≈ 308,199 years

Yes, you’ve read that correctly – Hulk was on Sakaar for nearly 300,000 years. But he wasn’t, not really. It’s simply too long, and there’s no possible way he could’ve been on the planet that long. More importantly, Thor spent only a few days on Sakaar, which is less than a minute in Earth time.

This means that the Revengers should have arrived at Sakaar just after Hela killed Thor’s friends and before she single-handedly slaughtered the Asgardian army in time to save Asgard before Hela became too powerful. And since it did not happen like that, we can only affirm our statement from the beginning of this section – it’s a plot hole, and you needn’t bother with it. We can all assume that Hulk spent two and a half years on the planet before being saved.

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