The Hulk may be one of Marvel's most famous heroes, but after the release of The Incredible
Hulk, Bruce Banner was sidelined until The Avengers rolled around four years later.
And even then, the Hulk's role in the MCU has largely been a supporting one.
So why did we never get to see The Incredible Hulk 2?
When The MCU began, their core actors were in place: Chris Evans as Captain America.
Chris Hemsworth playing Thor.
And of course Robert Downey Jr., nailing the role of Iron Man.
Well, three out of four isn’t bad, because we all know what happened with Bruce Banner.
So why did Edward Norton fail to make the cut for Earth's mightiest heroes?
While most of the actors playing Avengers have had a long and prosperous relationship
with Marvel Studios, Norton seems to have gotten off on the wrong foot from day one.
In fact, he doesn't appear to have even been the first choice for the role.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, director Louis Leterrier let it slip that,
while he appreciated what Norton brought to the table, his first pick had actually been
Mark Ruffalo.
"I prefer you."
On top of his runner-up status, numerous rumors have arisen over the years suggesting that
Norton may have been difficult to work with on the set, that he was "very vocal" at times
when he disagreed with something, and that he was overly involved in tampering with the
script.
While none of these are particularly rare qualities in Hollywood stars, they're not
likely to stack the deck in your favor, either.
It didn't take long after the film came out for the first hints of discord to begin surfacing.
Two years after The Incredible Hulk's release, Marvel boss Kevin Feige made the announcement
that Norton would not be brought back to "portray the title role of Bruce Banner in The Avengers."
At the time, Feige insisted that the decision wasn't a monetary one.
His statement read:
"Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in
the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented
cast members."
Feige's statement made it clear that something had been going on behind closed doors something
more than a few friendly disagreements over the script.
Luckily, the Hulk was still set to appear in the first Avengers movie and would continue
to make appearances in other characters' future films.
But the removal of Norton from the role shed a little light on why Iron Man, played by
the immensely popular Robert Downey Jr., became the center of a burgeoning franchise while
the Hulk languished on the sidelines.
Norton's agent was quick to respond to Feige's statement.
In his rebuttal, he said:
"This offensive statement from Kevin Feige at Marvel is a purposefully misleading, inappropriate
attempt to paint our client in a negative light."
The actor himself took to social media, not to attack Marvel, but rather to express his
disappointment at the way things had turned out.
He wrote:
"I sincerely hoped it could happen and be great for everyone, but it hasn't turned out
as we all hoped.
I know this is disappointing to many people and that makes me sad.
But I am very sincerely grateful to Marvel for extending the offer and even more so for
giving me the chance to be a part of the Hulk's long and excellent history."
These responses from Norton and his agent seemed to indicate that, no matter how bad
things might have been behind the scenes, Norton had continued to hope that he would
reprise his role.
Unfortunately, Feige's decision put an end to those hopes.
As the dust settled, Norton eventually traded his regretful tune for one of indifference,
explaining a few years later that he had lost interest in the role, and instead wanted to
act in other movies and genres.
While it's been rumored for years that Norton isn't the easiest person to work with, that
doesn't mean the blame for his removal deserves to fall squarely on his Hulked-out shoulders.
Both Marvel Studios and Disney have developed a track record over the years for dismissing
various personnel who haven't fallen in line with their vision.
For example, Thor: The Dark World's first director, Patty Jenkins, said she didn't think
she "could make a great film out of their script."
Rather than allowing her to adjust the story, the studio parted ways with the director…
who went on to head up Wonder Woman, while Marvel ended up with a subpar sequel to their
Thor franchise.
Terrence Howard also infamously lost the role of James "Rhodey" Rhodes to Don Cheadle after
Iron Man.
And of course, there's Guardians of the Galaxy franchise mastermind James Gunn, who was fired
in 2018 after internet users dug up some of his old and quite offensive tweets.
While Disney may have ultimately reinstated Gunn to his previous position, the whole Norton
debacle wasn't the only behind the scenes misstep Marvel Studios has endured.
Although the actual details of the behind-the-scenes breakup may never be cleared up, however,
one thing that was crystal clear as the door swung shut on Norton: the Hulk's MCU storyline
wasn't going anywhere fast.
Rights are a tricky business in Hollywood.
In the case of a standalone Hulk sequel, though, they're even more nuanced than usual.
While Sony may own the rights to Spider-Man, for example, the rights to Hulk are more or
less "split" between Marvel and Universal.
But unlike the innovative time-sharing agreement between Sony and Marvel for Spidey, the Hulk's
situation has been complicated by the less-than-stellar relationship between the two studios holding
the strings.
According to Forbes, Marvel regained the rights to the Hulk character in 2005 when Universal
neglected to pursue a sequel to Ang Lee's 2003 movie Hulk.
"So, they think they can just throw you away as they did me."
But while that meant Marvel were given the chance to integrate Hulk into their cinematic
universe, Universal retained one critical piece of the puzzle: the "right of first refusal"
over the distribution of any solo Hulk films.
In other words, while Marvel can use the Hulk character, if they decide to make a Hulk movie,
Universal gets first dibs on distributing the feature.
Of course, Marvel has used other studios to distribute their movies before, and the lack
of distribution rights alone isn't enough of a reason to put the kibosh on a sequel.
But considering all the other issues The Incredible Hulk faced during production and after its
release, it can't have helped things much, either.
It's easy to look at the quarter of a billion that The Incredible Hulk made in theaters
and dismiss money as a motivation in Marvel's hesitation to produce a sequel.
But the numbers are actually a bit of an issue.
Even though the movie was released before the days when Marvel was pumping out billion-dollar
projects a couple of times a year, the film still underperformed at the box office.
During its run, Norton's Hulk brought in $263,427,551 which is a respectable sum, to say the least.
But take Iron Man for comparison.
That movie, which was released just a few months prior to The Incredible Hulk and which
cost $10 million less to make brought in twice as much in global ticket sales.
And while The Incredible Hulk may not have been a complete flop, its less-than-stellar
box office performance and middling critical reception likely suggested to Marvel that
the Hulk alone just isn't compelling enough to draw a big crowd.
Having the Hulk show up for a handful of epic fight scenes is exactly the kind of integration
that makes his presence in Marvel's more recent films worthwhile.
But the truth is, it costs a lot to produce a whole film centered on a completely CGI
character and that goes doubly when any scene they're in is going to have to include a kitchen
sink's worth of flying cars, crumbling buildings, and all kinds of mayhem.
While a huge investment in special effects is part and parcel of bigger crossover releases
like the Avengers movies, an entire film of that nature focused on a single character
is a daunting task to expect a studio to take on.
And when you take into consideration the disappointing box office reception of The Incredible Hulk,
it becomes that much easier to believe that the Marvel and studio execs involved in the
decision would hesitate before signing off on such an expensive project.
Although the snowball effect of subpar ticket sales, uninspired reviews, production costs,
behind the scenes drama, and distribution rights would have already been more than enough
to put the final nail in the coffin of any Hulk sequel, that's not the end of the story.
In many ways, the true Achilles heel of the Hulk's one and only MCU outing was that it
simply failed to fit the tone of the wider MCU.
Whether it was the solemn introspection that Norton tried to bring to the role or the inherent
difficulties in exploring the Hulk's mindless destruction as the centerpiece of a story,
The Incredible Hulk ended up struggling to hit the effortlessly entertaining tone of
most of the following MCU films.
Taking place in Phase One of the MCU, Hulk's film was set against characters like the selfishly
sarcastic Tony Stark, the lovably loyal Steve Rogers and the hilariously hunky Thor all
of whom were busy setting the stage for the first Avengers movie.
In comparison, Hulk's more serious overtones stood out like a big, green sore thumb and
made the film dark enough to dampen the enthusiasm of even the most ardent Marvel fan.
As if the sobering tone of the film wasn't enough, there's also the fact that the story
started by dropping the audience into a random spot in Banner and the Hulk's story arc and
then proceeded to take it absolutely nowhere.
After skipping over the famous gamma radiation exposure incident, the film proceeded to meander
awkwardly through Banner's harrowingly unheroic adventures.
He finally flashed a little superhero muscle when he subdued Abomination in the streets
of Harlem, but when the film ended shortly after things once again took a step backward.
Banner's takeaway from the experience was simply that he had found a way to come to
terms with the Other Guy.
And while this appeared to be a positive step forward for the character, the fact that it
was quickly retconned when Ruffalo's distressed Banner was brought back on the scene in The
Avengers made the whole point of the film pretty much... pointless.
In July 2017, Mark Ruffalo predicted that, quote, "a standalone Hulk movie will never
happen."
And while that may have seemed like the end of the story, you could argue that a secret
Incredible Hulk follow-up already exists.
"Hulk!
Hulk!
Hulk!"
Around the same time that Ruffalo dashed fans' hopes of ever seeing another solo Hulk film,
the actor also revealed in another interview that he'd sat down with Kevin Feige and the
two had brainstormed what a standalone film for the Hulk would look like.
Once they had a good idea to work from, they decided to implement it into the wider MCU
by divvying up the story across three separate movies.
Cleverly, none of these would be released as a standalone film, thus sidestepping the
rights issue with Universal.
Instead, the Hulk storyline would be woven through Thor: Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity
War, and Avengers: Endgame, during which his "sequel storyline" could finally be told one
piece at a time.
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