Mark Ruffalo says replacing Edward Norton as the Incredible Hulk was awkward.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe actor recently made an appearance at Emerald City Comic-Con, where he spoke about replacing the Glass Onion star following the latter's performance as Bruce Banner/the Hulk in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. After taking over the role starting with 2012's The Avengers, Ruffalo described the moment when he had his first interaction with Norton with one word: "Awkward," Ruffalo said with a laugh. "No, I mean, I didn't talk to him, but I reached out to him, as we do now when we don't want to talk. And I was like, 'Hey, man,' and he's like, 'No, it's fine.' I mean, it was weird. It was even weird when Robert Downey Jr., at Comic-Con [in 2010], when introducing me, said, 'And now reprising the role of the Hulk, is Mark Ruffalo.' And they’re like, 'Yeah-Huh.'"

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Norton's The Incredible Hulk was the second MCU film to be released following the blockbuster success of Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man. While the former film kicked off Phase One of the MCU and was a career comeback for Downey, Hulk was plagued by a troubled production led by Norton's script rewrites and clashes with producers. Despite decent reviews and a worldwide gross of $265 million worldwide, The Incredible Hulk did not meet Marvel's expectations.

Why Did Marvel Studios Recast the Hulk?

During the production of 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced a cast change for Bruce Banner for The Avengers. Ruffalo, who was in early contention for The Incredible Hulk, was announced as Norton's replacement at New York Comic-Con 2010. While Ruffalo pushed the big green guy forward in his MCU journey, Norton never expressed regret in losing out on the role to him. "But you know, Ed's... I don't think... I don't know how attached to it Ed was, you know, ultimately," Ruffalo said. "I think he was like, 'Oh, thank God. Let Ruffalo deal with it.' But he’s been beautiful. We're friends. It's never come up as an issue. I'm blessed."

Ruffalo's performance proved popular with MCU fans and he went on to make subsequent Hulk appearances in 2013's Iron Man 3, 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, 2019's Avengers: Endgame, 2021's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the first season of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+. Ironically, the latter MCU project's director, Kat Coiro, revealed that Norton was discussed for an unlikely cameo in the season finale. "There was a lot of talk about the fact that the last time they were together a different actor was playing the Hulk. And Mark made quite a few jokes about that," Coiro said. "And we did entertain the idea of swapping Mark out for Edward Norton. But that did not come to pass."

Source: The Direct