Edward Norton Discusses His HULK Plans and How They Aligned With Christopher Nolan's DARK KNIGHT Films

When Marvel Studios released The Incredible Hulk after Iron Man, the studio was still in the process of trying to figure out what they were doing. In the beginning, there were no long term plans for a connected Marvel Cinematic universe. That was just a hope and dream that they might be able to pull it off if their films made some money.

Well, we all know how that turned out! When Edward Norton was brought in to star in and produce The Incredible Hulk, he initially pitched a two-movie story arc to Marvel that they apparently loved! But, as you know, Norton ended up being replaced by Mark Ruffalo and that second Hulk film was thrown out the window.

There were rumors that Norton was difficult to work with, but in a recent interview with the New York Times, Norton discussed what he was looking to do with the Hulk, and how plans broke down due to creative differences. The second film was pitched as a darker and more serious Hulk movie, and the actor likened it to what Christopher Nolan was doing with the Batman franchise. He said:

“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.”

It would have been cool and interesting to see how exactly Norton’s Hulk sequel would have played out. But, Marvel obviously changed their minds in how they wanted to proceed. I imagine that one of the main reasons for the change came when Disney bought Marvel Studios. It’s not hard to think that they didn’t want to partner up with Universal Pictures on another Hulk film.

What do you all think about what Norton was planning for his second Hulk movie?

GeekTyrant Homepage