Edward Norton Will Not Be In The Avengers

Recent news reports are telling us that actor Edward Norton (Fight Club, Rounders) will not reprise his role as The Hulk in the upcoming Avengers film. /Film is telling us that although the The Hulk will be in The Avengers, Edward Norton will not be playing him. Norton played The Hulk in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk and was supposed to reprise the role in The Avengers.

Almost everyone is coming back for The Avengers to reprise their role. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, Don Cheadle and Jeremy Renner will all appear in the film playing their characters. Norton is the first one so far to drop out of the film. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen an actor drop out of a Marvel movie. Terrence Howard was the first one to do it when he dropped out of Iron Man 2. Don Cheadle ended up taking the role.

In Norton’s case, apparently while Norton does have an interest in taking on the role again, Marvel doesn’t want him. There are a few reasons behind the decision.

First reason is money. Apparently Marvel is stingy when paying actors and seeing that The Incredible Hulk didn’t do that well, it would be understandable that Marvel wouldn’t be willing to cover Norton’s salary costs. Norton’s character is mainly CGI anyways so how long would Norton actually be on screen? Marvel could probably get away with finding another actor for the few scenes that Norton has.

Another reason that /Film suggests is that apparently Norton was tough to work with on The Incredible Hulk and Marvel doesn’t want that aggravation again. There are a lot of stars attached to The Avengers already and one less ego on the set wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Lastly, Marvel probably just doesn’t care. They easily replaced Howard for Iron Man 2 and they already have so many stars for The Avengers. Marvel knows The Avengers will do well with or without Norton so they probably feel that he is unnecessary.

I’m sure we’ll never find out the real reason but this news isn’t good. I think Norton’s a good actor and he played the role well in The Incredible Hulk. It’ll be interesting to see who they get to fill the role.