You won’t see all of the Hulk’s origin story in the new episode of Marvel Studios’ Legends
If you're looking to revisit The Incredible Hulk, it won't be on Disney Plus
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As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand, it’s become more and more challenging to recall well over a decade of world-building. Since the launch of WandaVision in early 2021, Disney+ has helpfully been providing character history recaps with the Marvel Studios’ Legends series. With She-Hulk: Attorney At Law premiering next week, the latest installment is about Bruce Banner, who will be appearing alongside his cousin Jennifer Walters as the titular heroine.
Though the roughly seven minute compilation includes many of the Hulk’s greatest hits, such as his very satisfying takedown of Loki in The Avengers and wielding the Infinity Stones to restore the half of the population taken by Thanos, there’s also a glaring omission: we don’t see just how Banner became the green giant.
The character was introduced into the MCU with 2008's The Incredible Hulk, which dug into his experiments with gamma radiation that gave him superpowers. Banner was originally played by Edward Norton, followed by Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers and subsequent projects.
While it might seem like The Incredible Hulk was left out of the Legends episode because it would be confusing to casual viewers or due to reported conflicts with Norton, the answer goes beyond simple editorializing. Due to rights issues, Universal distributed The Incredible Hulk. Though it was produced by Marvel Studios, the movie is not available on Disney+ and is currently available to stream on HBO Max.
Somewhat similarly, Sony holds the film rights to Spider-Man. While Peter Parker has appeared in various team-up stories in the MCU, Disney+ did not release a Legends episode ahead of Spider-Man: No Way Home, suggesting that the two studios’ deal is more restrictive with the web-slinger.
When it comes to other Hulk-adjacent heroes, Amadeus Cho, who was recently named as one of The A.V. Club’s top 15 Marvel characters we’d like to see in live action, has been anticipated for years. His mother, Dr. Helen Cho, was introduced back in 2015's Avengers: Age Of Ultron, hinting at the possibility of seeing the Totally Awesome Hulk. While he’ll be seen in the animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year, it remains to be seen what else Universal’s deal with Marvel Studios will permit.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law premieres on Disney+ on August 18.
32 Comments
“The character was introduced into the MCU with 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, which dug into his experiments with gamma radiation that gave him superpowers”??? No, it didn’t. That was the Ang Lee movie. The 2008 movie glossed over it during the opening montage, in a way that fans could consider it a sequel to the Ang Lee movie if they wanted, but that it wasn’t officially one. It gets mentioned a couple times afterwards, but only via “As you know” dialog, never in flashbacks.
Unfortunately the powers that be don’t consider Lee’s “HULK” part of the MCU. I hate that.
Lee’s HULK is one of the only superhero movies from the last 2 decades that I go back to for re-watches. I must not be Marvel’s target audience, because I find most of the rest of their output to be at best entertaining in the moment, but extremely forgettable beyond that. HULK stuck with me though.
I really think its almost TOO creative for the rest of the genre/Marvel products. Think of how Lee actually had a theme and used the visual storyboard look to play with it. Also, the idea of using practical effects for the things Hulk smashed was brilliant! I really do think, much like The Eternals, it was a case of the wrong director for what their audience wants (an audience I am happy to be a part of, truth be told.) I think during that two hour run time, most of the audience isn’t looking for an art film…they want action and spectacle. (See what spectacle can get you in ‘NOPE’! HAHA!)
I’m so sorry its ignored and maybe one day it will come back into the spotlight it deserves.
Hulk fit with a running theme in the mid-2000s of the United States military engaging in situations they could only make worse. It’s like a companion piece to 28 Weeks Later.
They don’t “consider it” part of the MCU because isn’t part of the MCU, any more than the Thomas Jane Punisher or the Affleck Daredevil or the Lucas-produced Howard the Duck or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.*
* meaning, of course, they could be part of a greater multiverse, but they predate all the MCU movies.
The MCU didn’t exist at the time. Marvel Studios didn’t really start thinking about the MCU until after Iron Man 1 was a big success, and Incredible Hulk was 95% done when Iron Man hit theaters. At the time, whether the Ang Lee movie was still canon was a legitimate question. The director outright stated that it was because of the Ang Lee movie that Incredible was not a origin movie, and that the flashback montage was done in such a way that it didn’t actually reference anything from that movie, but didn’t contradict anything either, leaving it up to viewer opinion whether the movies were connected or not. Of course it’s not now in hindsight, but back in 2008 that was a lot more ambiguous.
the flashback montage was done in such a way that it didn’t actually reference anything from that movie, but didn’t contradict anything eitherEh, it pretty directly contradicted a LOT of the Ang Lee Hulk. There’s no way to make them both fit together. They just crammed it all into the opening credits so you could ignore it if you wanted to pretend it was a sequel to Hulk.
Haha, you act as if there is some scientific reason behind not including them. Its a decision made by a company, whether we like it or not. But its hardly immutable.
???
The scientific reason is that films made by Marvel Studios starting with 2008’s “Iron Man” count and films made by other studios and/or before then do not.
‘Scientific’! HAHAHA! You crack me up.What you said absolutely supports what I said about a company’s arbitrary decision.
Just parroting your word back, bro. I should have put it in quotes, I guess.
Use whatever adjective you want, bottom line is, if it came out before Iron Man it’s not part of the MCU unless they add it using multiversal shenanigans.
*Picks up drink and walks to another room at the party….something I’m sure you’ve seen A LOT of people do*
The end of a conversation with a guy who likes Ang Lee’s Hulk is no big loss.
I remember that movie being absolutely terrible.
also this
Sorry, but unless Feige (or one of the movies/tv shows) specifically says otherwise, it’s canon as far as I’m concerned.
That’s idiotic, stop doing it.
But you will see him try on pants.
What’s confusing to me is that they’ve omitted The Incredible Hulk 2008 from Legends yet Tim Roth’s Abomination seems to be a big character in this based on the trailer. And it does seem like having seen that film will add additional layers of understanding why he’s a criminal on trial. They don’t need to show Norton but if they’re so keen on a Tim Roth comeback it wouldn’t have been hard to include just him hulking out into Abomination on the legends video.
i liked how they re-did those scenes with animated ruffalo in what if.
Either Universal is refusing to let them use footage or (more likely) Disney doesn’t feel like giving them money to use it.
I understand that Universal has a contract with Marvel saying that only Universal can make a Hulk standalone movie (or has to give permission if Marvel wants to make one), but… how long does that contract last? It’s been 19 years since Ang Lee’s Hulk came out, and surely it’s not a perpetual license without a “you must make a film every X years or you lose the rights” clause. (I mean, it could be, but if so, yikes to whoever negotiated that.)
Universal lost the rights to make standalone Hulk films in 2005, but they still have the right of first refusal to pick up distribution rights on any standalone Hulk film.
Ah ok. But it still seems odd for that to be perpetual (or, indeed, anything Marvel might have licensed).
Yeah, I couldn’t find any more detail than that, so I don’t know how or why they’ve held on to that for so long…or why Disney hasn’t tried to buy the distribution rights off of them like they did from Paramount for the Iron Man films.
I think something like Kevin Smith said (he was trying to get back Mallrats rights) that Universal has never given up distribution rights to any of it’s films, like, ever. But what Marvel has is all the rights to the Hulk characters. It’s just if anyone wants to put out a Hulk movie, it has to be put out by Universal. Sort of the same way that the MCU Spider-Man movies are Marvel Studios movies working for Sony.
Now that you mention it, I forget how Banner became the Hulk. Didn’t he answer a Task Rabbit offer?
Ang Lee’s Hulk is underappreciated, and the MCU Hulk movie is green garbage.
Streaming rights are so wacky. I’m going to rewatch Incredible Hulk before She-Hulk and in Canada it’s available on Netflix and Crave. But also on Disney Plus I can watch the original Spider-Man trilogy, the ASM duology and Homecoming (been rewatching them before No Way Home extended edition in Sept and also they’re in 4k). Netflix has Spider-Man trilogy, ASM duology, Into the Spider-Verse and Far From Home. And No Way Home is on Amazon Prime. But Homecoming is on the official MCU timeline order on the app. Anyway the arrival of (most of) the Spider-flicks on D+ in Canada and the UK means it’ll hit D+ USA eventually, probably by this year.
So his arm is healed now?