In Avengers: Endgame, Hulk/Banner (smart hulk?) is the default form for Bruce Banner. However, in the credits scene of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Bruce is shown as a standard human (or as standard human as Banner gets). Why is he no longer Smart Hulk by the time of Shang-Chi?
1 Answer
Banner in Shang-Chi (and at the start of She-Hulk) is wearing a special device that makes him stay in his human form.
“When you first come into Bruce and Jen in the car in the first episode, you kind of hear the tailend of the conversation. And really that conversation is just him talking about how he discovered that his arm could heal better when he was in human form, so he created that little device that you see him wearing to keep him in human form just so that he can heal his arm and then go back to being Smart Hulk. And that's why when the device breaks in the car accident, he turns back into Smart Hulk. And because we were doing all of this, that's actually why we kind of planted Bruce in Banner form in Shang-Chi.”
She-Hulk Producer Clarifies Shang-Chi Post-Credits Confusion