Director Louis Leterrier, who most recently directed “Fast X,” has opened up about the “Incredible Hulk” sequel that could have been. In an interview with ComicBook.com, the French director revealed he had hoped to make a sequel to the 2008 film and had a whole film in mind. He said, “There was like Grey Hulk, Red Hulks – there was a lot of good stuff that we were planning.”
Leterrier added that the potential for Hulk is extraordinary in the MCU. “Hulk is a complex character within the Marvel Universe,” Leterrier said. “You want the primeval Hulk… the rage Hulk. And then when you go Grey Hulk and Smart Hulk you lose that a little bit and you get a little bit more kiddish with it.”
The 2008 “Hulk” movie stars Edward Norton in the title role, though Norton was replaced with Mark Ruffalo when the character was rebooted four years later in “The Avengers.” Ruffalo later played the character in a number of movies that followed, including “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Captain Marvel” and “Avengers: Endgame.”
Ruffalo also appeared as Hulk in the Disney+ series “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” though Leterrier specifically pointed out that the Hulk in the TV series is not the Hulk he worked on. As he put it, “That was the fun of where I was in my movie, with the access to consciousness and all that stuff. That was really fun. And that’s what I was aiming to do. But take my time with it.”
Leterrier continued, “Because there’s so many characters, they want it all fast [laughs]. I like She-Hulk, but then you know, yoga between Hulk and… I was like, ‘OK! Yeah, we’re very far from my Hulk.’”
Back in 2013, the director told HuffPost that he actually had hoped to bring Ruffalo on as Hulk in his movie, but the idea was shot down by Marvel. He said, “When people are asking me, because Mark Ruffalo is in this one, who’s the better of the Bruce Banners — both are great; both are fantastic — but I actually wanted to cast Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Marvel was like ‘No, you should get Edward Norton because he’s more famous.’”
Leterrier added, “So you see what I am saying? They are the ones who wanted Edward — and I was thrilled to meet him and work with him. I wanted Mark Ruffalo. And they were like, ‘No, no, he just does smart, intellectual movies.’”
As for Norton, despite having expressed frustration over not playing the character in more movies, by 2019 it seemed the actor had made peace with the transition to Ruffalo. In a New York Times profile, Norton said, “Ultimately they weren’t going for long, dark and serious. But it doesn’t matter.”
He concluded, “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.”
