Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008, Ang Lee made a Hulk movie starring Eric Bana.
Bruce Banner was given the standalone film treatment in 2002 with the Australian actor in the lead role.
However, when it came to immortalising the character in the MCU, Bana was not asked to return.
Edward Norton played Banner in 2008 film The Incredible Hulk with Mark Ruffalo becoming his fixed replacement from Avengers Assemble (2012) onwards.
Reflecting upon the fact he was not asked to be in the MCU, Bana told podcast host Marc Maron that he didn’t really mind. In fact, he admits it took him some time to consider accepting the role in the first place.
“It wasn’t a quick yes, that’s for sure,” he told Maron. “It took me a while to get my head around it. I wasn’t privy to the script prior to signing onto the film. It’s one of the only films I have done where that was the case. It just wasn’t the type of film that I saw myself doing,”
He continued: “The universe as you know it didn’t exist back then. You certainly didn’t go into a film like that thinking you were going to do more than one. That just wasn’t in play. he expectations were not the way they are now. I approached it as a one-off.”
Bana says he saw Norton in The Incredible Hulk, but has not seen a single MCU film starring Ruffalo. He also revealed that he hasn’t bonded with either of the pair over their experience of playing the character.
“There’s not a lot of Hulk entwining here,” Bana told Maron.
Ruffalo will next be seen as Banner in Disney Plus TV show She-Hulk, which also stars Tatiana Maslany. The plot of the show is yet to be announced, but a theory suggests that the show could set up the introduction of the World Breaker version of the character.
