It’s been over a decade now since Edward Norton’s one and only MCU outing as the star of Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk, but should Marvel Studios find themselves with another character fit for the Motherless Brooklyn star, then Norton has suggested that he’d be open to returning.
During a recent appearance on Larry King Now, Norton was asked if he’d ever come back to the Marvel universe, to which he replied:
“Yeah, why not? I had a lot of fun with it. I never made a movie like that.”
Back when Marvel Studios was more to open to recasting their major characters (see also: War Machine), Norton was famously dropped from the franchise due to creative differences, leaving the part of Bruce Banner open for Mark Ruffalo to fill in 2012’s The Avengers. Nonetheless, Norton has insisted that there are no hard feelings, explaining that he was just one of a series of performers to take on the role:
“I mean, Mark and I came up together in New York. He’s like one of the best, and people always try to create fake arguments and stuff. But it’s like doing Hamlet. The Hulk, it’s like, Bill Bixby was great, Eric Bana was great, I hope I was good, Mark’s great. I think it’s just one of those things a lot of great actors are gonna get to do.”
By now, audiences have got pretty used to seeing Ruffalo as the Incredible Hulk. Still, if Marvel ever has another role suitable for Norton, then it wouldn’t be the first time an actor has played two different characters in the MCU. In a recent interview with Total Film, Norton even suggested the possibility of playing a villain, before adding that he might try to write his own script.
Only time will tell if Norton’s comments ever lead to anything, but in the meantime, it looks like Ruffalo’s run in the MCU will continue with a She-Hulk TV show. As it stands, little is known for sure about the upcoming Disney Plus series, but now that Avengers: Endgame has given the character of Bruce some closure, perhaps the time is right for the torch to finally pass to another raging green hero.
