This will be the first week in a while without any new She-Hulk episodes, and I’m bummed about it. Not everyone was a fan of the legal comedy, but I was here for the entertainment and nonsensical moments. The finale went so meta that it was difficult not to love it. You have to respect a studio as big as Disney being willing to poke fun at itself.
Amidst the chaos of the She-Hulk season 1 finale, it appears that Marvel was hoping to rope in Edward Norton to return as the Hulk. Instead, Mark Ruffalo made another appearance at the end.
Edward Norton could have returned as the Hulk on She-Hulk
It’s been over a decade since the Hulk has had a standalone movie, thanks to the distribution rights being in Universal’s control. The Hulk was initially played in the MCU by Edward Norton in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, but he was eventually replaced by Mark Ruffalo.
It would have been great to see Norton continue in some capacity, but destiny had other plans. During the She-Hulk series, there was a nod to Norton’s Hulk when Ruffalo’s Hulk refers back to the 2008 face-off with Abomination stating he is “a completely different person now, literally.”
Speaking with The Direct, She-Hulk director Kat Coiro shared that she and Marvel Studios did consider bringing in Norton for the finale. “There was a lot of talk about the fact that the last time they were together, a different actor was playing the Hulk,” she said. “And Mark made quite a few jokes about that. And we did entertain the idea of swapping Mark out for Edward Norton. But that did not come to pass.”
Why was Edward Norton replaced as the Hulk?
When Ruffalo replaced Norton as the Hulk all those years ago, word was that Norton was difficult to deal with on set. Apparently he had a controlling nature and insisted on rewriting parts of the script. Perhaps Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige didn’t want to deal with that again.
But then again, weirder things have happened, so we’ll have to wait and see if Norton’s Hulk ever gets the chance to return. If not, I am perfectly fine with it. I don’t see anyone else as Hulk besides Ruffalo.
All episodes of She-Hulk are now streaming on Disney Plus.
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