Edward Norton Opens Up on What Went Wrong With Marvel Over 'Hulk' Film

Right before you were handed over Mark Ruffalo as the NEW Hulk, it was none other than Edward Norton who played the character in Marvel's The Incredible Hul back then.  I mean, there didn't seem to anything being a problem - A legendary actor-check, Marvel universe-check, iconic character-check. But turns out, things did go wrong and the next thing we know after Norton's only collaboration with Marvel turned out to be his last one and they split.

Many wondered why did this happen. It so happened that Norton wanted a rather gritty and dark Hulk film (something on the lines of Christopher Nolan's Batman franchise) and even thought that Marvel was on board with him for that - but they were not.

Recently, in an interview with Times, he opened up on the whole saga, "I laid out a two-film thing: The origin and then the idea of Hulk as the conscious dreamer, the guy who can handle the trip," Norton said. "And they were like, 'That’s what we want!' As it turned out, that wasn’t what they wanted."

Still, Norton said he had a "great time" doing the film, and got along well with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. That was until Feige released a statement in 2010 that said Norton would not be in Avengers, and took a shot at the actor for apparently being difficult. ("Our decision is definitely not one based on monetary factors, but instead rooted in the need for an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented castmembers," Feige's statement said.)

"Yeah, which was cheap," Norton said. "It was brand defensiveness or something. Ultimately they weren’t going for long, dark and serious. But it doesn’t matter."

He continued, "We had positive discussions about going on with the films, and we looked at the amount of time that would’ve taken, and I wasn’t going to do that. I honestly would’ve wanted more money than they’d have wanted to pay me. But that’s not why I would’ve wanted to do another Hulk movie anyway."

Norton maintains there was no fight between himself and Feige during production.

"I’m saying that Kevin had an idea of a thing that you could do, and it was remarkable," he said. "Now it didn’t happen to be on a tonal, thematic level what I wanted to spend my time doing."