At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con today, Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, off-handedly responded to a fan question about the decision to recast the role of Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the upcoming Avengers film rather than asking Edward Norton to reprise the role from The Incredible Hulk.
“He’s not here today,” Feige said in response to the question during the Marvel Studios panel, which was simply “Ed Norton?”. He then basically took a page out of Norton’s classy statement explaining why he wasn’t attached to the project and declared that the panel wasn’t quite over (perhaps eluding to the Avengers announcement that came later on).
The crowd’s reaction, a mix of silence and booing across the room, seemed less than satisfied. This was also the case during the Avengers cast announcement when Avengers co-star and Comic-Con favorite Robert Downey Jr. introduced Mark Ruffalo, who then was brought on stage.
Ruffalo was obviously Joss Whedon’s pick to play Bruce Banner under the circumstances, but the situation is apparently still very volatile for fans.
However, I could be completely wrong and people really don’t care about the decision at all. Feel free to leave your own thoughts on the matter in the comments…
At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con today, Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, off-handedly responded to a fan question about the decision to recast the role of Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the upcoming Avengers film rather than asking Edward Norton to reprise the role from The Incredible Hulk.
I’m really upset by the loss of Norton. When he was originally announced as Banner for the Incredible Hulk, it was a dream casting for me.
But, while it’s still not clear why the recast happened (it seems to be money, though Marvel refuses to admit it) I understand these things happen. I think Mark Ruffalo is an excellent choice to be the next Banner, I just hope if there’s an Avengers 2 or another Incredible Hulk movie that they keep Ruffalo. Otherwise it’s going to start to seem that every time Banner Hulks out, he looks different when he changes back.
Comment by Josh Parylak — July 25, 2010 @ 1:22 pm
Well, it’s not a lot that can be done at this point…Hulk has become like Batman, with three different actors playing him at this point.
It makes you disconnect from the character as far as I’m concerned.
Comment by The Human Scorch — July 25, 2010 @ 3:49 pm
Good point, Scorch. And don’t think Marvel Studios hasn’t realized that! They know full well that no one really cares who replaces Norton now. Whether Ruffalo was Whedon’s “top choice” to play Banner or not, if the fate of the Avengers movie depended on the success of Hulk as much as it does Iron Man, you know Marvel would have thrown money at Norton to stay.
I’m still of the mind that whatever tensions arose between Norton and Leterrier or Norton and the studio during the filming of The Incredible Hulk carried over into negotiations for the Avengers movie. I don’t doubt that Norton can be a prima donna, but whatever rewrites Norton may have pushed for, the Hulk movie was better for it.
It’s also possible that Norton simply may not have wanted to share the spotlight with Marvel Studios’ pride and joy, Robert Downey Jr. Or perhaps Whedon didn’t want to deal with any possible threat of Norton interfering. Either way, it’s a moot point. The Avengers movie will be lacking without Norton’s presence. I hope Whedon has something up his sleeve to knock this one out of the park.
Comment by Jeffrey B — July 25, 2010 @ 7:16 pm
Not getting Ed Norton to be Bruce Banner is disgusting, I really thought that Marvel saved the Hulk franchise by casting Norton, and in my opinion The Incredible Hulk is Marvel’s best movie to date, and it is a shame that they will not just work this out and get Norton on board, they can use Ruffalo to play his dad in Captain America or something, this needs to be fixed, and as far as Whedon goes, why would you want a guy responsible for such gems as Buffy and Angel even coming near The Avengers? yuck, I am beyond let down as a long time Marvel fan (since long before these movies started coming out) and I really dont even care to watch another Marvel movie now b/c of this, Norton saved the entire concept of Hulk, and it is garbage that some hollywood nonsense is going to ruin it, The Avengers will really suffer w/ Norton, and I take this as a slap in the face from a fan stand point, it just goes to show that Marvel is just cranking these movies out on an assembly line, and they dont care about the fans @ all, well Im sure your movies will make money, but Marvel has lost my respect
Comment by Adam Schwartz — July 28, 2010 @ 1:04 pm
I agree w/ scorch as well, they really just lose all credibilty by doing this, it is just pure trash, and I have lost all respect for Marvel b/c they have no respect for their fans.
Comment by Adam Schwartz — July 28, 2010 @ 1:06 pm
Adam, I agree with you pretty much on every point but one.
As much as some of us may hate to admit it, Whedon has done some very respectable stuff. Buffy and Angel are not my cup of tea, but those shows had staying power and huge popularity. Buffy won 3 Emmys and is consistently listed on several Top TV Shows of All Time. Firefly was quite good despite it’s short run. It actually won an Emmy and has experienced strong DVD sales. Its movie incarnation, Serenity, was a damn fine flick in my opinion. Whedon’s run on Astonishing X-Men was one of Marvel’s best-selling comics in 2006 and was nominated for several Eisner Awards.
Like it or not, the guy does know what he’s doing. He has an ability to take larger-than-life characters, or characters in larger-than-life situations, and make them relatable. He brings a great amount of pathos and empathy to his characters.
Avengers is going to be rough. There is going to be a ton of scrutiny from fans, and undoubtedly a lot of pressure from the studio to crank it out quickly. Whedon has his work cut out for him, and I honestly hope he can pull it off.
Comment by Jeffrey B — August 2, 2010 @ 6:51 pm