2008’s The Incredible Hulk featured a more serious take on the character of Bruce Banner, something that director Louis Leterrier recently defended star Edward Norton for fighting for.
Speaking during a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Leterrier spoke about alleged behind-the-scenes drama between Norton and Marvel executives over the tone of the movie.
“The whole way, everybody was in lockstep. It just got tense at the end,” Leterrier said. “The end, it was very tense about the tone and the level of humor. Although Edward is very funny, all his friends are comedians and he is an extremely funny guy, he was very right in defending the seriousness of the movie. You have to remember, the mid-2010s . . . The Dark Knight had such an impact on superhero movies.”
Edward Norton’s original two-movie plan for the Hulk
As the follow up to the first MCU movie, Iron Man, Marvel’s The Incredible Hulk tried to be more action-oriented than the melodramatic 2003 adaptation by Oscar-winner Ang Lee. Norton was cast as Bruce Banner/Hulk and Marvel allowed him to rewrite the screenplay by Zak Penn. However, the actor’s ideas did not align with Marvel’s vision for the character.
“I laid out a two-film thing: The origin and then the idea of Hulk as the conscious dreamer, the guy who can handle the trip,” Norton said. “And they were like, ‘That’s what we want!’ As it turned out, that wasn’t what they wanted.”
The Incredible Hulk went on to earn $264 million worldwide and was met with mixed reviews. Norton’s creative disputes with Marvel resulted in the star withdrawing from the press tour. His relationship with the studio ended before production began on 2012’s The Avengers when Marvel recast Bruce Banner with actor Mark Ruffalo who would continue the role in several MCU appearances through 2022’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+.
The Incredible Hulk is now streaming on Disney+.
