After years of feeling like the black sheep of the interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems Marvel is keen on continuing onwards in their universe with the Edward Norton led - The Incredible Hulk.
While a potential World War Hulk film has been rumored to have been in development over at Marvel Studios for the last couple of years - along with Marvel bringing back characters such as Betty Ross and Samuel Sterns for their upcoming Captain America: Brave New World film, Marvel is finally ready to put their messy past with The Hulk behind them.
Albeit, that might be easier said than done for us fans, now that an actor who has worked on several Marvel Studios films has come out and cast criticism on Edward Norton's performance for The Incredible Hulk.
In the book - MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, Terry Notary - a well integrated actor/stuntman/choreographer within the MCU who has been part of multiple Marvel films since 2008's The Incredible Hulk (additionally served as the stand-in for Groot in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame), had this to say about Norton's performance:
"[Norton] wasn’t really engaged, as far as the Hulk stuff goes, unless he was transforming from himself into the Hulk. He was not very present through the whole thing."
Supposedly, Norton's lack of effort resulted in a much more complex feat for the visual effects artists on The Incredible Hulk to face, as since Norton failed to present a genuine "involved" performance, the artists had to manually render all of The Hulk's facial expressions - an extremely lengthy and tiresome task.
"Hulk doesn’t have Edward Norton’s expressions, but the two are eerily similar in facial timing."
Notary goes on to praise Tim Roth's Abomination/Emil Blonsky performance though, for the actor appeared much more involved throughout production of the film:
"[Roth is] one of those quintessential actors that likes to be involved, wants to make sure that he’s going to look good and his character’s going to look good."
With Mark Ruffalo having taken up the mantle of Hulk since 2012's The Avengers, fans have been eager for Marvel to desperately bring back Norton's portrayal of Hulk in the current-day MCU.
Did you like Edward Norton's performance as the giant green rage monster in The Incredible Hulk?
Scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) desperately seeks a cure for the gamma radiation that contaminated his cells and turned him into The Hulk. Cut off from his true love Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and forced to hide from his nemesis, Gen. Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt), Banner soon comes face-to-face with a new threat: a supremely powerful enemy known as The Abomination (Tim Roth).
The Incredible Hulk is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character the Hulk. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Universal Pictures, it is the second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It was directed by Louis Leterrier from a screenplay by Zak Penn, and stars Edward Norton as Bruce Banner alongside Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell, and Christina Cabot.