Joss Whedon Reveals Hulk's Role in 'The Avengers'

One looming question about The Avengers has been what role The Hulk would play in the film. He could be a hero - a member of the team, in other words - or a villain. Both have precedent in the comics, and at least from the perspective of character efficiency, it might make some sense to have Hulk be the bad guy the Avengers have to stop. With Mark Ruffalo landing the role of Bruce Banner this summer, replacing the publicly bounced Edward Norton, we at least knew that the Hulk would have some kind of significance; if his alter ego is in the film, then Hulk can't just be a CGI-created background character. Well, whether he meant to or not, Joss Whedon revealed Hulk's role, in a recent sit-down with Earth's Mightiest (via Daily Blam). “We’ve had a lot of the same discussions and they’ve revolved around color and costumes," Whedon said. "You have to hit this in the face. You have to say 'one of these guys is enormous and green, one of these guys has a cape, one of these guys wears the flag, this one’s metal, that guy has a bow and arrow!'" That's, in order, Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and Hawkeye. And now we know, and according to another Paramount franchise, knowing is half the battle. But Whedon admits just because it's cut and dry on that level that there's plenty of juggling left to be done.

"There are ways in which we’re gonna be able to tie them together in the color pallet as it seems. And there are ways in which I simply don’t want to. The Avengers are in some way a slightly ridiculous concept and without getting ever campy or losing the integrity of this thing you gotta let their freak flag proudly fly. This is a motley crew. They do not belong together. That’s the point of the whole movie is them discovering in what way they do belong together because they really don’t to the casual observer.”