Leterrier explained to EmpireOnline.com that The Incredible Hulk is not an origin story, and that it starts with Dr. Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) on the run from U.S. authorities. "We pick him up in the movie when he's in Brazil and he's trying to keep the monsters at bay, literally.
Both the monster inside and the army chasing after him to harness his monster — to create a supersoldier. So he uses Brazilian jujitsu and yoga and meditation techniques to keep the monster inside of him. And, also, if someone picks a fight with him, he's using that Brazilian jujitsu because jujitsu and aikido are more elusive martial arts — he's deflecting the blows so he can run away and not get involved."
To Leterrier, Banner's "not a superhero, he's not Jason Bourne. He's the anti-James Bond, the anti-Jason Bourne. He's really the guy that doesn't want the fight. Unfortunately, as you can see from the teaser, he sucks at avoiding it!"
In addition to General "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt), the film's other main villain is Emil Blonsky, a.k.a. Abomination (Tim Roth). Leterrier calls Blonsky "an ace, but he's an ace that is kind of over the hill. ... He is the opposite of Bruce Banner — he's a fighter, he's a machine, he's a very effective, cool-as-a-cucumber soldier that is over the hill – 38, 39 years old – has finished his life as a soldier, should be a Colonel by now and has never accepted that failure. He loves being a fighter, loves being on the field."
Unlike the CG-rendered titled character, Roth's Abomination looks different than his comic book counterpart. "I really wanted to justify [Abomination's] appearance. I really wanted to wrap my head around the original scaley-with-big-ears monster that was in the comic book, but I couldn't justify it," Leterrier explained. "And the way he gets injected with the serum, he's shot in the skin and the muscles, and shot inside the spine. That makes his bones grow thicker and bigger and longer, making him a super-weapon. So he's got that spine that flares out, which becomes a weapon. He's got elbows that stick out and become these martial arts, Chinese knives — things that can slash back and forth. He's got this tongue thing and the heel-spikes… so he's a killing machine."