Edward Norton played the green mutant in The incredible Hulk in 2008, this film being the second installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, after the release of the film, Kevin Feige did not hesitate too long to get rid of Norton and replace him with Mark Ruffalo. Almost all of us will agree that the change ended up being for the better, but what is not counted so much is the soap opera that took place behind the scenes for Feige to make this tough decision.
What did Edward Norton do to get kicked out of the MCU?
It may be that Edward Norton’s Hulk did not end up grossing the amount expected by its producers at the box office, but the critics did agree that Norton fit the character quite well.. Or, at least, the movie made more sense than the previous attempt with Eric Bana. However, Norton didn’t last long on the MCU ship.
The idea of Marvel Studios is to have had Norton’s collaboration in the following UCM movies. However, an internal dispute between Norton, Feige and a good handful of writers ended up separating the actor from American History X to give way to a less conflictive Mark Ruffalowhich would also end up making all fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe fall in love.
The controversy between Norton and Marvel Studios was full of noise. In the first place, Feige wanted to lighten the issue by publishing a rather ambiguous message, alleging that they were looking for a more collaborative actor. This was interpreted as Norton asking for a higher salary to continue playing the character, and, although it is not ruled out, it was not the bulk of the matter.
Norton got too involved in The Incredible Hulk
The main problem was that Edward Norton got too involved in the script for The incredible Hulk. Apparently, as a child he was a fan of the superhero, and he wanted to put his grain of sand —or rather, an entire beach— getting into the field of screenwriters. Norton had a dark take on the Hulk, and wanted the film to have the overtones of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight. While it’s true that many actors do this, Norton’s problem is that he made the vision of him obsessive. He got to the point of despising the work of the writers and wanting to replace them himself.
When his solo film finished shooting, Feige met with his team and they determined that it was best remove Edward Norton from future Marvel Studios projects. They feared that a production as large and important as The Avengers had the same problems again, so they decided to cut to the chase and find a replacement for him.
The rest is history, and Norton’s expulsion was not a pretty goodbye to say. Feige’s publication was not meant to hurt, but the misinterpretation of many people, added to the crossing of words by Norton’s agent, made this whole thing become a real soap opera. What we can take for granted is that Joss Whedon got away with a good one.
