After almost two decades of the Hulk’s on-screen MCU exploits, The Incredible Hulk director’s comments about making the Hulk into an Avengers villain seem all the more fascinating. Over the 17 years the MCU timeline has currently unfolded in, the story of each member of the original Avengers team has evolved and changed considerably – something that is notably true for the Hulk and his Smart Hulk transformation. One of Marvel’s most popular and recognizable characters, the Hulk is naturally a key figure for the MCU, though its handling of the hero has raised some questions for audiences during this time.
While the Hulk has had some undeniably iconic moments in the MCU over the years, it’s also fair to say that the character’s limited appearances – only appearing in the Avengers movies and other heroes’ releases – and story trajectory have arguably wasted the hero’s potential at several points across his history. With this in mind, the fact The Incredible Hulk‘s director offered up the opportunity for the Hulk to become a villain in The Avengers – and explained why it could be best for the character – feels like an especially pertinent idea retrospectively.
The Incredible Hulk’s Director Suggested The Hulk Could Be The Avengers’ Villain Years Before The MCU Movie’s Release
Lois Leterrier Suggested An Interesting Possibility For The Hulk
The Incredible Hulk released in 2008, meaning there was a four year gap between its own debut and 2012’s The Avengers. With the general public aware the major crossover movie was on the way far before its release, though, conversations around how the Hulk and Marvel’s other heroes could fit into the story were naturally a subject of some discussion. Since the drastically different ways the Hulk has been depicted over the years made it unclear how Marvel would handle bringing the character on-screen alongside the roster of other protagonists, it seemed there were many ways this could pan out.
Indeed, even The Incredible Hulk’s director had more than one idea about how the franchise could follow up from the film and its initial depiction of the iconic comic figure. On the matter of a follow-up story for the Hulk and his prospective future in The Avengers, The Incredible Hulk director Lois Leterrier stated in a 2008 interview with MTV News that:
“I would love to see [the Hulk become the villain that fights the Avengers] because I think the best villains are always the ones whose agenda you understand… They’re not synthetic to us in a way; they’re not these one dimensional bad guys.”
“That’s why I left the door open for whoever’s going to direct ‘The Avengers’ with our last sH๏τ. Edward and I, we consciously decided to make the last sH๏τ of the movie when he opens his eyes and he smirks at the camera… Is he enjoying it? Is he malicious? That’s what’s great about Edward. You don’t know if he’s a good guy or bad guy. He’s always on this edge and we’ve been sort of surfing that edge, that very thin edge during the entire movie.”
“So that last sH๏τ of the movie, if you decide that he’s smiling, in control, then he’s a good guy, that’s ‘The Hulk 2’… If Hulk is a failure, then he looks up and smirks and that’s eventually the Hulk of the Avengers — the uncontrollable beast that they need to team up to stop.“
Naturally, this is a pretty drastic contrast to what actually ended up happening with the green behemoth in The Avengers‘ story, as despite his unpredictable nature and berserker rages, the Hulk becomes an appreciated and valuable part of the Marvel hero team with relative ease, versus being any kind of genuine antagonist in its plot line. However, the concept is one that, looking back now all these years later, I can’t deny seems pretty fascinating, especially given just how drastically this could have changed his overall arc in the franchise.
Having The Hulk Be The Avengers’ Villain Could Have Been A Game-Changer For His MCU Story
The Hulk Starting Out As More Of A Villain Could Have Been Promising For His Story
The Hulk’s instability – and Banner’s struggles to control his berserker alter ego – is a primary focus of The Avengers‘ Hulk story, setting up for Banner’s continual conflict with the Hulk and later transformation into Smart Hulk. The Avengers certainly teased the idea that the Hulk could fully go rogue, but this was seemingly more to add dramatic tension to its story and add more reasons for the team to be cautious about banding together than for any other story reason.
However, having the Hulk appear as an actual villain in The Avengers versus an initially somewhat reluctant ally would have turned all of this on its head. Whether by having the Hulk actively replace Loki as the movie’s main antagonist, or simply letting the Hulk be another villain the group ended up needing to face, allowing us to see what the Hulk is like at his worst – and showing how powerful he is by having him more actively face the Avengers – would have underlined his threat level in a way the Avengers movies never quite come close to despite multiple teases.
Letting Banner start his connected MCU story by facing off against the Avengers would have made his overall arc feel more varied, and emphasized the Hulk himself as more of an antihero figure, potentially netting him a more complex role than the comic relief or powerhouse staples he’s often pigeonholed into. Similarly, The Avengers could have also used the same justifications for Loki’s more villainous acts – that of the Mind Stone essentially mindcontrolling him and corrupting him into carrying out more vicious acts – to ensure the Hulk could still reasonably join the Avengers after all this.
Taking this approach could also have made iconic Hulk stories like an MCU adaptation of World War Hulk more potentially viable, since the Hulk’s own introduction would have made it clear from the start that the character could be as great a foe as he is an ally to Marvel’s heroes, and that the Hulk’s desire to protect himself and Banner could manifest in some dangerous ways. While none of this would have guaranteed a strictly better Hulk story, the often somewhat declawed version of the Hulk we get in the MCU does make the idea of a full initial villain story all the more interesting.
Now It’s Looking Like We’ll Never Get A Villain Hulk Story, I Really Wish The Avengers Had Made Him More Of An Antagonist
The Avengers Had The Best Excuse To Show The Hulk As More Of An Antagonist At This Point In His On-Screen Journey
With the aim of The Avengers unsurprisingly being to show the team of some of Marvel’s most famous heroes coming together, it makes sense the movie chose to depict the Hulk as a complicated figure who still ultimately never veers away from being an ally to the other heroes for long. However, now we know the Hulk’s story features at least 17 years of him being relatively constrained compared to his comic book counterpart, it’s easy to imagine how moments like his Helicarrier rampage could have blossomed into something more dramatic, and could have potentially benefited the Hulk’s overall arc.
With the rest of the Avengers movies that the Hulk has appeared in thus far focusing on establishing different villains and steadily setting up for Thanos’ dramatic move into the limelight, The Avengers retrospectively seems like the best chance the MCU had to show a different side to the Hulk after The Incredible Hulk itself. While it would have led to a very different start to his MCU Avenger story, this path could still have taken many of the same turns, and the road to Banner’s current more zen-like state may have looked all the more impressive for it.
Upcoming MCU Movies
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Thunderbolts*
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May 2, 2025
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps
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July 25, 2025
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Avengers: Doomsday (2026)
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day
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July 31, 2026
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Avengers: Secret Wars
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May 7, 2027
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