In the early days of the MCU, there was a fair amount of drama happening behind the scenes. The second film in the MCU, the Edward Norton-led The Incredible Hulk doesn’t register very high among fans for good reason.
Behind-the-scenes there was a ton of drama that resulted in Norton leaving the franchise after the film wrapped, and him gaining a reputation as a difficult actor to work with.
The film didn’t fair well with critics, as it opens with a solid first act, followed by a big, CG, watered-down mess. Mark Ruffalo took over the role of Bruce Banner in the MCU, and the rest is history.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Norton breaks his silence about his departure from the MCU. He says it had nothing to do with money, but rather the split happened over creative issues.
Norton actually wanted a darker, more-serious version of the Hulk, and Marvel didn’t:
“I loved the ‘Hulk’ comics. I believed they were very mythic. And what Chris Nolan had done with Batman was going down a path that I aligned with: long, dark and serious.
If there was ever a thing that I thought had that in it, it was the Hulk. It’s literally the Promethean myth. 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.
And they were like, ‘That’s what we want!’ As it turned out, that wasn’t what they wanted. But I had a great time doing it. I got on great with Kevin Feige.”
When Marvel announced Norton’s dismissal, Kevin Feige stated that the recast was “rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members.”
According to Norton this was a low blow, but he felt it was Feige doing damage control:
“It was brand defensiveness or something. Ultimately they weren’t going for long, dark and serious. But it doesn’t matter.
We had positive discussions about going on with the films, and we looked at the amount of time that would’ve taken, and I wasn’t going to do that.
I honestly would’ve wanted more money than they’d have wanted to pay me. But that’s not why I would’ve wanted to do another ‘Hulk’ movie anyway.
I went and did all the other things I wanted to do, and what Kevin Feige has done is probably one of the best executions of a business plan in the history of the entertainment industry.
As a Disney shareholder, you should be on your feet for what they pulled off.”
Continuing his cryptic statements that dance around the obvious, Norton refuses to comment on the MCU as a whole:
“Kevin had an idea of a thing that you could do, and it was remarkable. Now it didn’t happen to be on a tonal, thematic level what I wanted to spend my time doing. Conflating that into a fight or a judgement is grotesque.”
Norton stars and directs Motherless Brooklyn hitting theaters on November 1.
