At the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con today, Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios, off-handedly responded to a fan question about the decision to recast the role of Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the upcoming Avengers film rather than asking Edward Norton to reprise the role from The Incredible Hulk.
“He’s not here today,” Feige said in response to the question during the Marvel Studios panel, which was simply “Ed Norton?”. He then basically took a page out of Norton’s classy statement explaining why he wasn’t attached to the project and declared that the panel wasn’t quite over (perhaps eluding to the Avengers announcement that came later on).
The crowd’s reaction, a mix of silence and booing across the room, seemed less than satisfied. This was also the case during the Avengers cast announcement when Avengers co-star and Comic-Con favorite Robert Downey Jr. introduced Mark Ruffalo, who then was brought on stage.
Ruffalo was obviously Joss Whedon’s pick to play Bruce Banner under the circumstances, but the situation is apparently still very volatile for fans.
However, I could be completely wrong and people really don’t care about the decision at all. Feel free to leave your own thoughts on the matter in the comments…
