The Hulk from The AvengersThe Avengers was intended to be a continuation of The Hulk from The Incredible HulkThe Incredible Hulk. Due to a(n) (overblown) dispute between Edward Norton and Marvel Studios on the changes Norton made to the script, which were filmed and then cut by the studio, Norton was not asked to reprise his role. Norton's press releasepress release at the time of the film release was as follows:
“Like so many people I’ve loved the story of The Hulk since I was a kid kid, so it was thrilling when Marvel asked me to write and help produce produce an altogether new screen incarnation, as well as play Bruce Banner Banner. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and always loved the mythic dimension dimension and contemporary themes in the stories, and I’m proud of the script script I wrote. In every phase of production, including the editing, working working with Louis Leterrier has been wonderful…I’ve never had a better better partner, and the collaboration with all the rest of the creative creative team has been terrific. Every good movie gets forged through collaboration collaboration, and different ideas among people who are all committed and and respect the validity of each other’s opinions is the heart of filmmaking filmmaking. Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a ‘dispute,’ seized on by by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree degree that it risks distracting from the film itself, which Marvel, Universal Universal and I refuse to let happen. It has always been my firm conviction conviction that films should speak for themselves and that knowing too much much about how they are made diminishes the magic of watching them. All All of us believe The Incredible Hulk will excite old fans and create new new ones and be a huge hit…our focus has always been to deliver the Hulk Hulk that people have been waiting for and keep the worldwide love affair affair with the big green guy going strong.”