Why the MCU shouldn’t have discarded Edward Norton’s take on Hulk

2008’s The Incredible HulkThe film was not at all a failure. It more than made back its budget, and it scored a Metacritic rating that lands it comfortably in the “not great, but not bad” category. However, it was quickly removed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Edward Norton’s take on Marvel’s Green Mean Machine was retconned away, with Mark Ruffalo replacing him and doing a very different take on Hulk. The majority of The Incredible Hulk was reduced to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in 2012’s Avengers

Around 2021, Disney began incorporating the Norton film into its MCU continuity. Tim Roth returned as Emil Blonsky aka Abomination in a brief cameo. Shang-Chi & The Legend of the Ten Rings, Later, as a Guest Star on She-Hulk Attorney at Law.

It was important to establish stronger links between the earlier and subsequent versions of MCU Hulk. She-Hulk, a series that seemed to bring Bruce Banner’s story to an end so he could pass the torch on to his cousin. After a bunch of movies where Ruffalo’s character rampaged as just Banner, just Hulk, and a mix of the two in the form of Professor Hulk (Bruce’s mind in Hulk’s body, a hybrid who debuted in Avengers: Endgame), it really felt like that character’s potential had been fully tapped. It was only natural to make room for the new Hulk. Comic book depicts a comical take on Hulk, not just as a woman. She-Hulk Deadpool is basically the original Deadpool. It has jokes that break fourth walls.

The potential of the MCU Hulk has not been exhausted. There are still so many things the writers of Marvel blockbusters haven’t done with him. The foundations had already been laid in The Incredible Hulk

Photo: Universal Pictures/Marvel Enterprises

Two things are notable that the later Marvel films failed to copy from Ed Norton’s movie. The first thing is Tim Blake Nelson who, at the very end of the movie started to transform into The Leader the Hulk classic villain. MCU cut that idea and lost a character of limitless intellect, vanity and telekinesis. It should also be illegal to tease more Tim Blake Nelson without actually delivering. The second thing we lost is a feral, animalistic Hulk who can’t hold a conversation and can’t be controlled — a scarier, more exciting version of the character who’s much closer to the comics’ original version of him as something like a radioactive werewolf.

Hulk is at stake from the first moments of gameplay. The Incredible Hulk, Norton plays Bruce Banner, who tests a treatment for gamma-radiation poisoning. This triggers the transformation. From his point of view, we watch as Bruce Banner hurts people in his vicinity. This includes his girlfriend Betty Tyler (Liv Tyler), whom he sees as an evil monster who has no relation to Bruce.

Louis Leterrier, the director of the film, does this all without any dialogue. He relies solely on visuals. That ups the intensity, helping the scene go straight to the lizard portion of the audience’s gray matter, where it’s processed the same way as a horror movie. That’s really the core of what makes The Incredible Hulk It’s a great movie. It isn’t an actual horror flick, but many parts of it, its take on the titular character included, are horror or horror-adjacent.

Leterrier’s approach to Hulk has given the character a new depth. Norton’s portrayal of Bruce when the character returns to human form is a clear example. He plays Bruce as exhausted, traumatized, and scared. Betty, Bruce, and themselves check in to a motel after their fight at Culver University. This character, who had just fought off bullets that were the size of thermoses, is now a shuddering mess wrapped up with a towel. He can’t talk, he can barely move, and when he somehow manages to get in the shower, he starts reliving the trauma of the fight, where he wasn’t in control of himself and was being shot at. It seems almost ridiculous that a superhero would be afraid of guns after so many Marvel films where they have faced space demons and the Goddess of Death. But it isn’t quaint — it’s human. Ed Norton’s Hulk is refreshingly human.

Photo: Universal Pictures/Marvel Enterprises

Compare that scene with the first time Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner transforms into the Hulk in Avengers Falling to Earth and changing back into human form, he immediately begins to joke with the security guard. It’s not that focusing on trauma is better than comic relief — both are valid takes on Hulk that can be backed up by some iteration of the comics. And there’s no denying that Mark Ruffalo’s performance has been a huge hit with audiences, helping make Hulk an A-list superhero. But as much as Ruffalo’s Bruce talks about how he’s afraid of “the other guy,” his version of Hulk is still a hero, someone who suddenly seems as in-control as he needs to be whenever the action beats call for it. Ed Norton’s Hulk isn’t.

In the 2008 movie, this point is repeatedly made. Most notably, right after Culver University, Hulk carries Betty unconscious away, and hides both of them from the rain by hiding under a rock outcropping. As soon as she awakens, Betty screams in terror at his sight. We see Hulk screaming at the rain and throwing rocks. This Hulk isn’t a superhero, he’s a powerful animal. He’s basically a giant ape, with some degree of sentience, but ultimately operating on animalistic instinct. That’s why, when it comes to the final showdown between this character and Abomination, Norton’s Banner doesn’t plan to change, then hope Hulk will choose to be noble and save the day. Instead, he hopes to “aim” the green monster at the other monster, and pray like hell that he doesn’t hurt any innocent people along the way.

What is the strangest thing? The Avengers looked like it was going to give us that Hulk in the beginning, with a Ruffalo-Hulk who’s feral, dangerous, and incapable of telling friends from enemies. Later in the same film, though, co-writers Joss Whedon and Zak Penn dial down his wildness and turn him into the Marketable Hulk, who understands human speech, waits for Captain America’s instructions to smash things, and saves Iron Man when he’s falling from the sky. Once more, there’s nothing wrong with that take — but there’s a clear disconnect between Hulk at the beginning of the movie and at the end, with no clear reason for the change.

Image: Universal Pictures/Marvel Enterprises

Then why not fix it? What if MCU brought back that version? There are hints of this in Age of Ultron, The Avengers, when Scarlet Witch messes with Hulk’s mind, but there’s so much more story potential for a more dangerous, less urbane Hulk, a Hulk who can’t really be called an Avenger because he doesn’t have enough of a mind to consent to being part of a team. A Hulk who would probably have to be “contained” and aimed at enemies the Avengers cannot handle, which raises the kinds of huge ethical questions the MCU could stand to occasionally consider.

It’s still possible to do it. Professor Hulk doesn’t have to be the final word on the character in the MCU. Hulk can be explored in a hundred ways. It would be great if Marvel and Disney wanted it. They probably don’t, because he’s more marketable as a superhero. It’s still an option, waiting for someone else to take it and carry on what The Incredible Hulk It was 15 years since the company began.