With now 28 films and five Disney+ series, it can be difficult to remember when Marvel Studios was a scrappy little comic book studio tossing movies at any distributor willing to show them. Yet, a still-existing deal between Marvel Studios and Universal is why The Incredible Hulk never got an official big-screen sequel. With She-Hulk on the horizon, however, the characters from the Edward Norton and Louis Leterrier movie might finally get to finish their stories.
Now that Disney owns Marvel Studios, the shared universe concept seems like a no-brainer. However, when Marvel Studios got their start, their connected universe of films belonged to different distributors. Most of the films in “Phase One” were distributed by Paramount Pictures, all except for The Incredible Hulk, whose rights belonged to Universal. To Universal the movie was a sequel to Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk, but to Marvel Studios it was a reboot that simply skipped the origin story, a move they’d use again when introducing Spider-Man to the continuity. Universal still has the first right of refusal to distribute a solo Hulk movie, but the deal made by then Marvel Studios executive producer David Maisel allowed them to use the character in their other films.
Because of that brilliant bit of negotiating, Marvel Studios has been able to tell Bruce Banner’s story through other characters’ films. We’ve seen him go from reluctant Hulk to Smart Hulk and, in the Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings post-credits’ scene, back to Puny Banner. We know that Mark Ruffalo will again reprise his role in the Disney+ series She-Hulk, starring Tatiana Maslany. We also know Tim Roth is returning as Emil Blonsky, the human side of the Abomination. (Also last seen in Shang-Chi.) Because title character Jennifer Walters is an attorney, this (hopefully first) season of She-Hulk could actually be the sequel to The Incredible Hulk that we’ve never gotten.
The fate of the Abomination has always been a dangling plot thread in the MCU. He was mentioned in The Consultant as being in the custody of General Thunderbolt Ross, played by the late William Hurt. He was presumably kept on the Raft prison seen in Captain America: Civil War, though he and Wong were later seen at a professional fighting ring run by Shang-Chi’s sister. So, who knows what he’s been up to? We can guess, however, since Jennifer Walters is a lawyer, that his return will involve a court case. That means, we can get closure for the rest of the characters in The Incredible Hulk.
Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns A.K.A. ‘The Leader’
Given how comics adaptations typically go for a character’s most infamous rogue as an antagonist, it’s truly astounding that we’ve not yet seen the Leader in live action. The closest we came was Tim Blake Nelson’s “Mr. Blue” in the last act of The Incredible Hulk. He’s revealed to be Samuel Sterns, the character who in the comics gets gamma poisoning that increases his intelligence. (It also turns his skin green and gave him a bulbous head.)
Throughout the film he is Bruce Banner’s biggest ally on the scientific front. Banner hopes together they can cure his condition, destroying the Hulk. When they meet, however, Sterns obviously put in a lot of work and great expense to turn his entire laboratory into studying this phenomenon. From his perspective, Banner then turns on him and tells him to destroy it. Immediately after this, his lab is destroyed by Ross’s agents, specifically Blonsky as he fully transforms into the dark mirror of the Hulk. The last we see of Sterns is him lying on the floor as Banner’s gamma-irradiated blood falls conveniently into an open head wound.
The Leader is a fantastic villain to pit against the Hulk, because he’s smarter than any version of the hero. The Abomination does make sense as the Hulk’s first MCU villain, though. A consistent theme of Phase One films leading up to Avengers is that the hero faces a dark mirror of themselves. Yet, the Leader deserves his shot. In this adaptation, both Sterns and Blonsky are victims as well. Sure, they volunteered for the sci-fi experiments just like Banner, but the full extent of this weird science negatively affected their lives. So much so, that perhaps a lawyer could take their case and seek compensation.
While it would be great to get the full-on Leader in the MCU, at the very least She-Hulk can give Sterns some closure. Right now, he’s stuck in whatever limbo exists for fictional characters like Terrance Howard’s James Rhodes, forever saying “Next time, baby” into the void.
Elizabeth Ross, the Daughter of Thunderbolt Ross
The only character and actor to transition from The Incredible Hulk into the MCU proper was Hurt’s General, and later “Secretary,” Ross. However, a big part of his story in the film was his relationship to his daughter. Throughout that movie he is singularly focused on capturing or killing Banner at all costs. The only thing that ever breaks through, revealing some semblance of humanity are his interactions with Liv Tyler’s Betty. Since The Incredible Hulk, she hasn’t even been mentioned again. Because Ross remained a real jerk throughout the Infinity Saga, it’s probably safe to say that she wasn’t in his life much anymore.
Still, Betty Ross is a character who deserves more than to just disappear into the MCU, walking down a road as “The Lonely Man Theme” plays over credits. Tyler did a fantastic job with a character who didn’t get much motivation beyond “she loves Bruce.” It would be nice to see how her life turned out. Perhaps she even reunited with Ty Burrell’s Leonard Samson, another character in need of some payoff. Though it’s unlikely that Burrell will get green hiar and massive muscles like the comics’ version.
Also, the intervening years have been kind to early MCU Phase One “love interests.” Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster is the Mighty Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder, another romantic lead who vanished from the MCU only to now return in style. Tyler deserves another bite at the apple for this character, and a chance to give her the kind of ending she deserves. Her life was totally destroyed by all these superhero shenanigans
The Trial of The Incredible Hulk
In some way, She-Hulk could pay homage to the old Bill Bixby TV movie The Trial of the Incredible Hulk. In this show, the case could be the events that transpired in The Incredible Hulk film. Either Blonsky is suing Banner or Blonsky is petitioning for release with Jennifer Walters as his attorney. Either way, it’s the perfect excuse to shoehorn a sequel story in for all these The Incredible Hulk characters.
Jennifer Walters is a great character in her own right, and she also deserves a show that tells her story. However, Marvel Studios is too smart to waste this opportunity to close some character stories that they’ve otherwise not been able to touch.
You can see if any Incredible Hulk characters show up on She-Hulk when it debuts on Disney+ in late 2022 or early 2023.