Even 15 years on, The Incredible Hulk largely remains the black sheep of the MCU family. A few years from now, it's possible "Rotten" titles like Eternals and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will join it, and Marvel Studios has only just started referencing the 2008 blockbuster in current projects.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law featured Abomination's return, while Captain America: Brave New World will put The Leader front and centre. The movie, which was plagued by behind-the-scenes issues (largely due to lead star Edward Norton), was only a moderate critical and commercial hit, and filmmaker Louis Leterrier has now reflected on his time in the MCU in an interview with Josh Horowitz.
Reflecting on meeting with Kevin Feige and Avi Arad during Marvel Studios' early days, the director recalls getting a call from the studio and learning that, instead of Iron Man, he was being offered The Incredible Hulk.
"They called me and they said, 'We've got great news, we'd like you to direct a movie for us.' I was like, 'Iro–' and they were like, 'Hulk.' Hulk? Ang Lee did it three years before they gave me the call and I thought about it and realized, my favorite movies growing up were 'Frankenstein,' the original 'King Kong,' werewolf movies, and the 'Hulk' TV show being so formative, so I was like, 'Of course.' They saw what I couldn't see."
It seems that Marvel Studios was happy enough with Letterier's work on the Jade Giant's big screen return to want him to stick around. While it doesn't sound like he was ever in the running for The Avengers (Jon Favreau was considered before Joss Whedon) both Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy crossed his desk in the years that followed.
"I passed on 'Thor,' I was like, 'I honestly don’t know how to do that,' and 'Guardians,'" he recalls. "'Avengers,' obviously, yes, I told him about [my interest] in 'Avengers,' but I don't think I made it to the list, but I met on 'Guardians' and [Feige] actually asked me if I was interested in 'Thor.'"
"When I knew they were doing it, I went deep on it," Leterrier said of his research for Guardians of the Galaxy. "[I was thinking], 'What? It’s crazy they’re doing this!' But no, to add the sort of feeling of a space opera with the Marvel look and sense of humor would be great."
It's interesting to think about what Letterier's take on those movies might have looked like, but at the same time, Kenneth Branagh and James Gunn were undeniably the right people to tell those specific stories.
How do you look back at The Incredible Hulk a decade and a half later?