When Marvel Studios launched the MCU, it had to offer the rights to many of its Avengers as collateral to the bank. Luckily, Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were successful enough to pay off the loan, with the latter viewed as the safe bet at the time.
Instead, Iron Man grossed $585 million and earned widespread acclaim. The Jade Giant's big-screen return, on the other hand, suffered from behind-the-scenes issues and received tepid reviews along with a so-so $264 million global haul.
In an interview with Collider, The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier—who was once in the mix to direct The Avengers—reflected on making the 2008 movie and reaffirmed that a much different version exists.
"There's a darker cut," he said. "Longer, obviously. It's not an hour, but it's very interesting because The Incredible Hulk was the first movie sort of starting the MCU. So there were all these ideas that started many of the stories you're following now, and that was in The Incredible Hulk."
"It was a little ahead of its time, so we didn't [shoot] it. But Captain America was in it," the filmmaker revealed. "Tony Stark was in it – he's still in it. And the opening was actually quite interesting. It was set in the North Pole. It was cool. A little too dark. Some got out, some are still to be shown."
In a scrapped opening sequence, Bruce Banner attempted to shoot himself in the North Pole, only to transform into the Green Goliath and spit out the bullet. During The Hulk's departure, we'd have caught a brief glimpse of Captain America's shield frozen in the ice.
However, what Leterrier is describing sounds like a full-blown cameo for Steve Rogers, which would have been well ahead of its time, given that Cap wasn't introduced in the MCU until 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger.
Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk were released 6 weeks apart in 2008 and featured plenty of connective tissue. In the latter's post-credits scene, Tony Stark showed up to discuss General "Thunderbolt" Ross' Hulk problem, setting the stage for a version of The Avengers (written by Zak Penn) that pitted Earth's Mightiest Heroes against the Jade Giant.
For a long time, The Incredible Hulk was the black sheep of the MCU family, not least because of the creative clashes with lead star Edward Norton. In recent years, projects like Captain America: Civil War, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Captain America: Brave New World have picked up some dangling plot threads.
What do you think Captain America's cameo in The Incredible Hulk would have looked like? Let us know your thoughts and theories in the comments section.