20 facts you might not know about 'The Incredible Hulk'

In 2003, Ang Lee, of all people, made a somewhat infamous Hulk movie titled Hulk. It is polarizing, but there were plans for a sequel. However, Universal did not meet the deadline for that sequel, though its screenwriter James Shamus had worked on one for a bit. That allowed Marvel to make its Hulk movie, with Universal keeping distribution rights.

So what’s the story of Hulk vis-à-vis The Incredible Hulk? Well, it’s complicated. People like producers Kevin Fiege and Gale Ann Hurd worked to toe the line, calling the movie its own thing but not wanting to dismiss Lee’s film entirely. He is, after all, an Oscar-winning director. Hurd tried coining the term “requel” for the film, a portmanteau of “reboot” and “sequel.”

Louis Leterrier had actually been interested in directing Iron Man , the first Marvel movie in what is now known as the MCU. Jon Favreau got that gig, but Marvel kept Leterrier in mind and offered him The Incredible Hulk. While he liked the show and the comic, Leterrier was concerned that he couldn’t replicate Lee’s directing style. Once Marvel told him they didn’t want that, he signed on.

The story of getting Hulk on screen was a tumultuous one. Case in point, Zak Penn wrote a draft of a screenplay for it in 1996, and the movie was not released until 2003. Penn was brought back for The Incredible Hulk, and this time, he stuck. He distanced his screenplay from Hulk, comparing it to the difference between Aliens and Alien.

The Hulk is, of course, a CGI creation. They don’t just paint a bodybuilder green these days and call it a special effect. Somebody has to play Banner and serve as the model for the Hulk, though. An early frontrunner was David Duchovny. Leterrier evidently wanted Mark Ruffalo, which will come into play later.

Edward Norton would be offered and accept the role of Banner. However, when you hire Norton onto your film, you are inviting a degree of, um, aggressive collaboration into the mix. Case in point, Norton arranged to be hired not just as an actor but also as a writer. Marvel said sure, give us a draft of the script in a month, which Norton did, and he continued to turn drafts in well into the filming of the movie.

Norton was not shy about espousing the idea in his script and even said that he wrote the movie at a Comic-Con appearance. The Writers Guild of America would beg to disagree, though. As is often the case, the WGA was brought in to arbitrate credit for the screenplay of this movie. They said Norton had not significantly changed the script and rewarded Penn with sole writing credit. Penn had beef with Norton in the wake of the film, particularly with Norton’s assertions as to how much credit he deserved for the script.

The aforementioned bodybuilder from the TV version of The Incredible Hulk was Lou Ferrigno. Leterrier asked him to work on the film voicing the Hulk, which he agreed to. This was the third time Ferrigno had played the role, as he also voiced Hulk in an animated series in the ‘90s.

Emil Blonsky, a.k.a. Abomination, was chosen to give the Hulk a formidable and worthy villain. Roth was interested in the part and had the support of Leterrier. However, he did not have the support of Norton or Marvel. When Ray Stevenson, who was in the running, was cast in Punisher: War Zone, Roth was cast as Blonsky. Roth had the idea of changing his character from a KGB agent, like in the comics, to a soldier.

Bill Bixby played David (not Bruce) Banner on The Incredible Hulk TV show. However, Bixby had passed away by the time they were filming this movie. They still managed to squeeze a cameo in. At the movie's beginning, Banner is watching The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, a show that starred Bixby.

Stan Lee has a cameo in this movie, but this was far from the first Lee cameo. What was notable, though, is that Robert Downey Jr. made a cameo as Tony Stark at the end of the movie. This basically presaged the MCU’s mid-credit and end-credit scenes, which are now synonymous with those movies.

A young Martin Starr plays a college student in this movie simply called “Computer Nerd.” Years later, an older Starr would be cast as teacher Roger Harrington in the Spider-Man movies starring Tom Holland. In modern times, you can’t simply leave well enough alone. As such, Feige has indeed stated that “Computer Nerd” has now been retconned to be a young Roger Harrington.

Directing a big-budget action movie is no easy feat. We didn’t intend that as a pun, but it turns out to be. Leterrier had unfortunately broken his foot leading up to the filming of The Incredible Hulk and had to direct the movie while dealing with that.

Luckily for Marvel and Leterrier, then-mayor of Toronto David Miller was a big fan of the Hulk. Much of the movie was shot in Toronto, and Miller agreed to shut down Yonge Street, a major thoroughfare in the city, for four nights in a row. However, the production had to do its part. At the end of filming every night, they had to clean up everything to allow business to progress as normal in the morning. When you are filming major action scenes, that isn’t exactly an easy cleanup, but they did it.

Roughly 70 minutes of footage was shot but not used in the final film, which is a high number, but there are always cuts when a film is being edited. There was a debate that arose from this. In this case, the director and star were in lockstep. Leterrier and Norton both liked a cut that was 135 minutes, while the producers wanted the film trimmed to under two hours. In the end, the producers won, and the movie is 112 minutes.

After the news leaked of Leterrier and Norton beefing with the studio, there were rumors that Norton would not promote the movie if he was not happy with the outcome. The actor then addressed those rumors, calling the disagreement part of the “healthy process” of making a movie, adding that it was “misrepresented publicly as a 'dispute', seized on by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself.” Whatever happened, it was decided that Norton wouldn’t really be involved in the promotion. He attended the premiere and promoted the film in Japan, but that was the end of his involvement.

The Incredible Hulk made $134.8 million domestically and $128.6 million internationally, good for a worldwide total of $263.4 million. Off of a budget of somewhere in the area of $140 million to $150 million, that was likely enough to make a profit. On the other hand, The Incredible Hulk is the lowest-grossing film in the entire MCU, including films like Eternals that were released during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What happened with Edward Norton? He says he chose not to play Hulk again because he wanted “diversity” in his career and did not want to be associated with one role. Feige has said he chose not to bring Norton back to play Banner again. All we know for sure is Norton was replaced by Ruffalo, who had been Leterrier’s first choice originally. Of course, Leterrier hasn’t been back, either.

Look, if Marvel wanted to make another Hulk movie, it would either have happened by now or been included in Marvel’s extensive future timeline. There was talk of a sequel to The Incredible Hulk, but in 2012, Feige said there were no plans for a standalone Hulk film, and since then, there has been no concrete talk of it, even though Ruffalo has expressed interest.

We aren’t just talking about Banner/Hulk, either. William Hurt’s Thunderbolt Ross became a recurring character, though the actor’s death has presumably ended that. Meanwhile, Roth recently returned to playing Blonsky/Abomination in Disney+’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Additionally, Tim Blake Nelson is slated to return as Samuel Sterns in Captain America: New World Order.