Having been completely overshadowed by Iron Man before recasting and redesigning its title character pre and post-transformation for the first team-up of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, 2008’s The Incredible Hulk is somewhat of an oddity in the MCU looking back all these years later.
In case you’ve forgotten (or too young to have even bothered at the time), the Louis Letterier-directed film followed hot on the heels of the MCU-launching Iron Man in 2008, with Edward Norton taking on the role of Bruce Banner.
Aside from William Hurt’s subsequent appearances as Thunderbolt Ross and the recent return of Tim Roth’s Abomination, the film seemed to have been relegated to a forgotten corner of the MCU for a time, but speaking to Comic Book, filmmaker Letterier has revealed that there was originally an entire plan mapped out for his version of the Green Goliath.
“Yeah there was like a whole sequel,” said Leterrier. There was like Grey Hulk, Red Hulks – there was a lot of good stuff that we were planning. Hulk is a complex character within the Marvel Universe. You want the primeval Hulk… the rage Hulk. And then when you go Grey Hulk and Smart Hulk you lose that a little bit and you get a little bit more kiddish with it.”
“That was the fun of where I was in my movie, with the access to consciousness and all that stuff. That was really fun. And that’s what I was aiming to do. But take my time with it. Because there’s so many characters they want it all fast. I like She-Hulk, but then you know, yoga between Hulk and… I was like ‘Okay! yeah, we’re very far from my Hulk.’”
Although things have obviously deviated from the original plan, Marvel hasn’t forgotten about The Incredible Hulk entirely as both Liv Tyler and Tim Blake Nelson are (finally!) set to reprise their respective roles as Betty Ross and Samuel Sterns/The Leader in Captain America: Brave New World, while Harrison Ford will take over the role of Thunderbolt Ross from the late William Hurt.
