Mark Ruffalo isn't the only person who's played the Hulk in the MCU: once upon a time, Bruce Banner was portrayed by the guy from "Fight Club." So why didn't Edward Norton come back for "The Avengers" — and how did he get Marvel Studios to update their rules?
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00:00 Mark Ruffalo isn't the only person who's played the Hulk in the MCU. Once upon a
00:04 time, Bruce Banner was portrayed by the guy from Fight Club. So why didn't Edward
00:08 Norton come back for the Avengers? And how did he get Marvel Studios to update
00:12 their rules? We take it for granted nowadays, but there was a time when it
00:17 seemed like the Marvel Cinematic Universe might not be a massive success.
00:20 Iron Man blew up the box office when it dropped in May 2008, but things weren't
00:25 so super for the Incredible Hulk when it came out just one month later. It got a
00:29 shrug from critics and underperformed at the box office. Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony
00:34 Stark became an overnight icon, but the same couldn't be said for Edward Norton's
00:38 Bruce Banner. Despite the hiccup, Marvel Studios steamrolled ahead. Almost every
00:43 single MCU project moving forward would end up making more money than the
00:47 Incredible Hulk, but Norton never got the chance to redeem himself. As of Phase 5,
00:51 the Hulk has never received a sequel, but more importantly, Norton was replaced
00:55 with Mark Ruffalo for the Avengers and everything after it. "What? I see this as
01:02 an absolute win." You don't need to be Professor X to deduce that some drama
01:07 had gone down behind the scenes. If you're thirsty for details, the book MCU
01:11 The Reign of Marvel Studios by Dave Gonzales, Gavin Edwards, and Joanna
01:15 Robinson features a chapter about the Incredible Hulk and its gamma radiation
01:20 flavored fallout. The book ultimately puts the production's unpleasant memories
01:24 on Norton's shoulders, suggesting that his actor-as-auteur approach solidified
01:29 Marvel's top-down filmmaking tactics. An unnamed Marvel performer told the
01:33 authors, "We have a no a**hole policy on our movies." Producer Craig Kyle confirmed the
01:38 existence of the unwritten rule, stating, "It's a great policy." It seems that
01:42 Norton's behavior during the production of The Incredible Hulk was the reason for
01:46 this guideline being put in place, but things aren't so black and white, they're
01:50 green. It's long been known that Edward Norton wanted a great amount of control
01:54 over the Incredible Hulk. As Norton told CinemaBlend in 2019, he saw the character
01:59 as a Promethean myth and wanted to make a trilogy in the vein of The Dark Knight.
02:03 Naturally, he had some strong opinions about how the character should act.
02:06 Norton apparently rewrote credited writer Zak Penn's script, although MCU The
02:12 Reign of Marvel Studios suggests this was more of a new coat of paint than an
02:16 overhaul. He also wanted to play both Banner and the Hulk for a more complete
02:20 performance, even though he ultimately wasn't really engaged in the motion
02:24 capture process. According to stuntman Terry Notary, the book likewise describes
02:28 director Louis Leterrier as having been differential to Norton on set. Marvel was
02:33 initially happy to give Norton the reins, but studio executives found themselves
02:37 underwhelmed by his 135-minute long cut. Despite Norton's loud objections, the
02:43 movie was cut into a 112-minute action flick. Leterrier was given a say over the
02:48 final cut by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, but Norton was not.
02:51 Reportedly, Feige still holds a grudge for Norton's conduct. According to the
02:56 MCU book, he and Avengers director Joss Whedon are the only MCU alumni on
03:01 Feige's "Do Not Call" list. Norton doesn't seem to recall the experience very fondly
03:06 either, as he made clear during the Comedy Central roast of Bruce Willis.
03:10 "I thought maybe we should try to make one Marvel movie that was at least as
03:14 good as the worst Chris Nolan movie, but what the hell was I thinking?"
03:17 Even outside Hulk, Norton has a reputation as being difficult to work
03:22 with because he cares a lot about creative control. He took the final cut
03:26 of American History X away from director Tony Kaye, who disowned the resulting
03:30 movie. Brian Cox, who worked with Norton on Spike Lee's 25th Hour, wrote in his
03:34 memoir, "Putting the rabbit in the hat." Norton is a nice lad, but a bit of a pain
03:39 in the arse because he fancies himself as a writer-director. Therefore, there's no
03:43 reason to doubt that Norton was a demanding presence and made few friends
03:47 on the set of The Incredible Hulk. But it's important to keep in mind that MCU,
03:51 the reign of Marvel Studios, isn't exactly an unbiased source. One passage
03:55 claims, "The Incredible Hulk also taught Marvel Studios a valuable early lesson
04:00 about the limits of collaboration." Put another way, Marvel learned that top-down
04:04 authority and creativity are not necessarily in conflict with each other.
04:08 More recent installments in the MCU have proven that this isn't quite true.
04:12 Nia DaCosta, director of the Marvels, told Vanity Fair of the 2023 film, "It is a
04:17 Kevin Feige production. It's his movie." Were things different back in the early
04:21 days? It's possible. But Norton isn't the only actor from Phase One who felt that
04:25 Marvel wasn't using him to his full potential. Mickey Rourke, who played the
04:29 villainous Whiplash in Iron Man 2, had a similar gripe that was also featured in
04:33 the MCU book. As he put it, "Marvel just wanted a one-dimensional bad guy, so most
04:38 of the performance ended up on the floor." So was Norton really being an a-hole?
04:42 Or was he just passionate about quality filmmaking? That depends on who you ask,
04:46 but it's probably a mixture of both.
04:49 Regardless of whether or not Norton's behavior during the production of The
04:56 Incredible Hulk was warranted, two things were indisputably true. He was difficult
05:00 to work with, and his creative vision for Bruce Banner didn't line up with Marvel's.
05:04 That made the studio's decision to replace Norton with Mark Ruffalo an
05:08 understandable one. Ruffalo is a quality actor with some truly badass moments in
05:12 The Avengers. But after the first team-up film, it seems like Marvel Studios hasn't
05:17 known what exactly to do with the Hulk. The big green smashing machine was too
05:21 scared to make an appearance past the opening of Avengers Infinity War. And
05:25 once we finally caught back up with him in Endgame after a five-year time jump,
05:29 he had undergone most of his character development off-screen. "I know, it's crazy.
05:33 I'm wearing shirts now." As of 2023, Ruffalo's Hulk was last seen introducing
05:39 his son, and his bizarre haircut, to family and friends. The possibility of a
05:43 Hulk trilogy may have left Marvel Studios when Norton did, but there are
05:47 still plenty of Bruce Banner stories to enjoy in the realm of comic books, like
05:51 Al Ewing and Joe Bennett's Immortal Hulk. As far as the silver screen goes, the
05:55 multiverse saga makes for an easy way to reintroduce Norton's version of the
05:59 character to the MCU. But as long as Feige still has his number blocked, that
06:04 probably won't be happening.
06:07 (upbeat music)