Marvel Won't Use Edward Norton in 'The Avengers'

As we've strongly suspected for two years, Marvel will cut its perceived losses for The Avengers and will not be bringing back Edward Norton to play Bruce Banner. That's according to HitFix, which reports that Marvel will have a full-scale invasion of Comic Con in two weeks to officially christen The Avengers and Norton won't be there. HitFix plays out a hypothetical situation in which Joss Whedon and the cast are introduced in San Diego, and some new guy will be announced as Banner. "[Marvel] has decided that they are going to cast 'an unknown' to play Bruce Banner and The Hulk in the film," writes the site, tipping that inside sources are ready to move on without Norton. There are two reasons I can think of why Marvel would go this route. The first is they've given Captain America and Thor to less-than-A-list talent. Of course, we have no idea if that will work, but if it does, why wouldn't it pay off for Hulk? The second reason is, naturally, that Marvel isn't in the business of revisiting mistakes when it can avoid it, and though I really liked the film and Norton in it, the 2008 Hulk didn't perform as well as the company would have hoped and there were rumors of in-fighting between Norton, the studio, and director Louis Leterrier, and on top of all that, he'd cost more. The cost is a big one to me, because I don't see Marvel pushing any future standalone Hulk movies. They're 0-2 in the eyes of audiences, once with one of the best directors alive and once with one of the best actors alive. And there's the lingering speculation that the real culprit is audiences don't warm up to CGI heroes, although tell that to Optimus Prime. But Hulk is supposed to look more than vaguely human, and he doesn't. It's the eyes. It's always the eyes. So whether or not this jumps out of Comic Con, I don't doubt the plan to go with an unknown at all. He'll be used in Avengers movies, and probably sparingly. And if another Marvel property called Spider-Man can drop its star and replace him with a guy nobody's heard of, why can't they do it here? To me, the workaround is just to feature Hulk and not Banner, since he's going to be a limited resource, anyway, but it appears Marvel has slightly bigger plans than that.

Comments

[El Doucheo Bago]

That really sucks, Norton is great.

[J.Bradley]

I figured there'd just be a Hulk appearence and that would be it, but yeah, the fact that there's a new actor in the Banner part says there'll be a somewhat more expansive part for the character.

[Babette]

I was absolutely shocked to read the reason why Marvel does not let Edward Norton reprise his part in "The Avengers".

It is rude and destroying and wrong that he is not
Quote: "...an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit of our other talented cast members".

I for myself can say, that I won't watch any Marvel Production again, before their President of Production, Kevin Feige, is not publicly apologizing for his terrible, destructive words!

Edward Norton is a gifted, terriffic and "very talented" actor, who did not deserve to be insulted while being dropped!

I was blown away by him in "25th Hour"!!!

Today casting is most of the time a business decision driven by numbers not quality! That is sad and still understandeable to some point. But the way they did it shows that they are having no class at all! While Mr. Norton in his reaction showed that he is different!

I am very upset and hope there will be other moviegoers that are feeling the same way!

Shame on you Mr. Feige!

Babette