Highlights
- The director of The Incredible Hulk reveals that the film could have had a sequel with Grey Hulk and Red Hulk, offering fans a more extensive look into the character's story.
- The concept of alternate-colored hulks was a long time coming, and it's interesting to see how it could have been integrated into the MCU earlier in the timeline.
- The director emphasizes the complexity of the Hulk character and expresses disappointment in how the Disney+ show She-Hulk portrayed the character, contrasting it with his ambitions for the Hulk.
The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier gave fans a glimpse of what he had in store for the audience before he departed from Marvel Studios.
The Incredible Hulk was released in 2008 and is one of the earliest Marvel Cinematic Universe projects. The film tells the story of Dr. Bruce Banner's transition from human to Hulk after he’s caught up in a failed scientific experiment that is secretly an attempt to revitalize a Soviet-era super-soldier program and the destruction and enmity that unfolds. Relegated to having only fan theories to explain The Incredible Hulk's link to the greater MCU, the film faded into obscurity despite being a solid introduction to the character.
The character would go on to feature prominently in the MCU's most important events, with many fans having to be content with a cursory Google search or inferences from the films to piece together who the Hulk was for lack of a popularized origin story. If not for its relegation to the back end of the MCU, The Incredible Hulk could have been that origin story and so much more, as the director behind the 2008 origin film revealed. The Incredible Hulk director Leterrier, who was in talks to direct Bright 2 before it was scrapped at Netflix, recently let it slip that the 2008 film could have gotten a follow-up project. "Yeah, there was like a whole sequel," Leterrier said during an interview with ComicBook. "There was like Grey Hulk, Red Hulks – there was a lot of good stuff that we were planning."
The concept of the alternately colored hulks being included in the MCU has been a long time coming, with Harrison Ford playing Thunderbolt Ross, the Red Hulk's usual human alter-ego, in Captain America 4. However, Leterrier's version would have brought the idea in much earlier in the MCU's history, perhaps at a more fitting point in the timeline. But the director is not overly confident and understands that the work of guiding the Green Giant "Hulk is a complex character within the Marvel Universe." Leterrier admitted, "You want the primeval Hulk... the rage Hulk. And then when you go Grey Hulk and Smart Hulk, you lose that a little bit, and you get a little bit more kiddish with it."
When the topic turned to the Disney Plus show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which ended its run as one of the lowest-rated Disney Plus shows of 2022, Leterrier had the contrasts between the realized show and his ambitions for the character. "That was the fun of where I was in my movie, with the access to consciousness and all that stuff. That was really fun. And that's what I was aiming to do. But take my time with it. Because there's so many characters they want it all fast. I like She-Hulk, but then you know, yoga between Hulk and... I was like 'Okay! yeah, we're very far from my Hulk.'"
Leterrier's idea for the Hulk sequel sounds like one that fans would have enjoyed immensely. However, it is worth questioning if it's too late for the director to get his way with the character. While Banner is currently settled into his Smart Hulk persona, anything can happen in comic books and comic book movies. A shakeup of that degree could be a step in the right direction, as many contemplate that Marvel might never recover from the current state of Hollywood without some drastic change.
The Incredible Hulk is available for streaming on Disney Plus.
Source: ComicBook