History Trivia / TheIncredibleHulk

* CastTheExpert: The master that teaches Bruce meditation techniques (and presumably some of the moves he uses on the thugs from the factory) is played by Rickson Gracie, a legendary Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner who also became a yoga adept under pioneer Orlando Cani. Amusingly, he is credited instead as an instructor of UsefulNotes/{{Aikido}}, a martial art Gracie doesn't practice and that has somewhat of a backlash against in the BJJ community.

* RoleReprisal: While Creator/LouFerrigno, the actor that played the Hulk on television, doesn't do the motion-capture for the character in this movie, he lends his voice to the movie version of the character.

* DawsonCasting: General Ross asks Emil Blonsky's age. Ross guesses the age of 45. Blonsky states he is 39. Creator/TimRoth was actually 46 at the time of the movie's release.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers: The Hulk has the dubious distinction of being the one hero with his own solo movie that was introduced in Phase One... and ''not'' given a sequel in Phase Two and Three. All subsequent appearances of the Hulk or Bruce Banner have been full appearances in the first four ''Avengers'' movies and ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', and cameos in ''Film/IronMan3'', ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', and ''Film/CaptainMarvel''. Part of the reason for this is that Universal still has the distribution rights to the character's solo films so Disney/Marvel Studios can only put him into the Avengers movies.

** Creator/MauriceLaMarche plays Comicbook/DoctorStrange in this series while John Vernon plays him on ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' (though this is likely because Vernon was the voice of Thunderbolt Ross in this series).

* RoleReprisal: Robert Hays (Iron Man), Dorian Harewood (War Machine), Creator/TomKane (H.O.M.E.R.), Beau Weaver (Mister Fantastic), Chuck [=McCann=] (Thing), Simon Templeman (Doctor Doom), John Rhys-Davies (Thor) and Richard Grieco (Comicbook/GhostRider). WordOfGod admitted to bringing them back for guest spots to help create a continuity with the preceding Marvel shows.
** Matt Frewer also first voiced the Leader in a one-off guest appearance on ''Iron Man''. Production liked his performance and made sure to keep him on for this series.

* BoxOfficeBomb: Production costs: $150 million (not counting marketing). Worldwide gross: $263 million. This movie bears the distinction as being Marvel's first and only flop, and even still, the film managed to break even with post-theatrical revenues since it came out right before advertising budgets on movies of this kind exploded. Even still, an underwhelming box office total likely contributed to the decision to not make another ''Hulk'' movie, even after the Marvel Cinematic Universe really took off with ''Film/TheAvengers2012''.

-->I did a big action movie called ''The Incredible Hulk''. You know what went wrong? It needed a better script... I thought maybe we should try to make one Marvel movie that was at least as good as the worst [[Creator/ChristopherNolan Chris Nolan]] movie, but what the hell do I know?

* ScrewedByTheLawyers[=/=]StillbornFranchise: The Hulk has the dubious distinction of being the one hero with his own solo movie that was introduced in Phase One... and ''not'' given a sequel in Phase Two and Three. All subsequent appearances of the Hulk or Bruce Banner have been full appearances in the first four ''Avengers'' movies and ''Film/ThorRagnarok'', and cameos in ''Film/IronMan3'', ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', and ''Film/CaptainMarvel''. Part of the reason for this is that Universal still has the distribution rights to the character's solo films so Disney/Marvel Studios can only put him into the Avengers movies.

* YouLookFamiliar: Martin Starr briefly appears as a computer geek that Banner bribes with some pizza. He would later play a teacher in ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming''.

* DirectedByCastmember: In addition to doing rewrites, Creator/EdwardNorton actually directed himself in some of his own scenes too, such as the campus scenes, to save time when the director was busy working with 2nd-unit.

* StarDerailingRole: This movie was a moderate success, but it was also the last starring role for Creator/EdwardNorton in a much bigger production, because afterwards he would at best be casted for smaller roles in bigger movies and at worst get bigger roles in smaller movies.

** Creator/RayStevenson was considered for Emil Blonsky before Creator/TimRoth was cast in the part. Stevenson would later go to play Volstagg in the ''Film/{{Thor}}'' films.

*** Creator/DavidDuchovny and Creator/DominicPurcell were also considered for the role of Bruce Banner before the casting of Norton. Creator/RayStevenson was considered for Emil Blonsky before Creator/TimRoth was cast in the part. Stevenson would later go to play Volstagg in the ''Film/{{Thor}}'' films.

* DeletedScene: Blonsky describes the Hulk to General Greller: "Eight foot, fifteen hundred pounds easy, and green. Or gray, sir. Greenish gray.. It was very dark, I couldn't tell." This is a reference to the Hulk being gray in his first comic appearance. Problems with the gray coloring in the first issue led to his skin color being changed to green.

* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: The title character of the episode "My Favorite Magician" is played by Ray Walston, Bixby's co-star in ''Series/MyFavoriteMartian''.

* TheOtherMarty: Richard Kiel (Jaws from ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'' and ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'') was originally cast as the Hulk but the producers decided he didn't have the right body type. There is one blink-and-you-miss-it moment in the pilot where Kiel is playing the Hulk instead of Lou Ferrigno.

** Shortly after the series ended, Bill Bixby wanted to do a crossover film with ''Series/TheAmazingSpiderMan1978'', and Bixby even had Nicholas Hammond (Spidey's actor) onboard and ready to go, but Universal Pictures passed. Their claim was that Creator/LouFerrigno was unavailable, though Ferrigno would later reveal that he'd never even been contacted nor had he even heard of the proposal until 2003.
** A fourth television film, ''Revenge of the Incredible Hulk'', would have seen Banner resurrected, and with the ability to control his Hulk power. Apparently dying didn't exactly ''cure'' him. It just would have made it so that Banner could control himself when he transformed... that and actually ''talk'', something the Hulk really didn't do outside of the two-part episode "Prometheus" when Banner was [[spoiler:trapped halfway between human and Hulk.]] However, the movie was cancelled due to ''Death of the Incredible Hulk'' receiving low ratings. Another movie that would have been a backdoor pilot for ComicBook/IronMan was also being considered, and a She-Hulk movie was in pre-production at one point as well.

* TheOtherDarrin: Creator/MarkRuffalo replaced Creator/EdwardNorton in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. Norton replaced [[Film/{{Hulk}} Eric Bana]]. [[spoiler:Making TheStinger for ''Film/IronMan3'' and ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'' the second most times they kept the same actor after Bill Bixby.]]

*** Creator/DavidDuchovny and Creator/DominicPurcell were also considered for the role of Bruce Banner before the casting of Norton.
** Creator/RayStevenson was considered for Emil Blonsky before Creator/TimRoth was cast in the part. Stevenson would later go to play Volstagg in the ''Film/{{Thor}}'' films.
** [[Series/TheWire Michael K. Williams']] cameo as a Harlem bystander was originally going to be much longer. He would have pleaded with the Hulk and Abomination to stop their fighting, only to change his mind and basically tell the Hulk.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers[=/=]StillbornFranchise: The Hulk has the dubious distinction of being the one hero with his own solo movie that was introduced in Phase One... and ''not'' given a sequel in Phase Two and Three. All subsequent appearances of the Hulk have been in the ''Avengers'' movies and ''Film/ThorRagnarok''. Part of the reason for this is that Universal still has the distribution rights to the character's solo films so Disney/Marvel Studios can only put him into the Avengers movies.

* ScrewedByTheLawyers[=/=]StillbornFranchise: The Hulk has the dubious distinction of being the one hero with his own solo movie that was introduced in Phase One... and ''not'' given a sequel in Phase Two and Three. All subsequent appearances of the Hulk have been in the Avengers movies and ''Film/ThorRagnarok''. Part of the reason for this is that Universal still has the distribution rights to the character's solo films so Disney/Marvel Studios can only put him into the Avengers movies.

** Before the attempt to incorporate the Oscorp Tower in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', which would've made Creator/AndrewGarfield's incarnation of Comicbook/SpiderMan part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, [[http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/06/12/spider-man-meets-the-hulk-the-cross-over-that-almost-was-but-wasnt/ Louis Leterrier originally intended to have Tobey Maguire have a cameo as Peter Parker in this movie.]] Funnily enough, he said in the same interview that [[HilariousInHindsight "Years from now you'll see Peter Parker meeting Bruce Banner".]]

** Samuel Sterns had a little accident where his head was seen to start slightly growing in size before the scene cut. This was, evidently a set up for him to eventually debut as "The Leader" (Sterns' alter ego in the comic). It seems to have been completely forgotten.

* BoxOfficeBomb: Production costs: $150 million (not counting marketing). Worldwide gross: $263 million. This movie bears the distinction as being Marvel's first and only flop, and even still, the film managed to break even with post-theatrical revenues since it came out right before advertising budgets on movies of this kind exploded. Even still, an underwhelming box office total likely contributed to the decision to not make another ''Hulk'' movie, even after the Marvel Cinematic Universe really took off with ''Film/TheAvengers''.

-->I did a big action movie called ''The Incredible Hulk''. You know what went wrong? It needed a better script... I though maybe we should try to make one Marvel movie that was at least as good as the worst [[Creator/ChristopherNolan Chris Nolan]] movie, but what the hell do I know?

-->''I did a big action movie called ''The Incredible Hulk''. You know what went wrong? It needed a better script... I though maybe we should try to make one Marvel movie that was at least as good as the worst [[Creator/ChristopherNolan Chris Nolan]] movie, but what the hell do I know?''

--->'''Bystander''': You know what, never mind, ''waste this bitch.''

** Creator/LouFerrigno briefly plays as the transforming Grey Hulk in season 1's finale, while Michael Donovan takes over when Grey Hulk makes his later appearances.

[[AC:TV series]]

[[AC: 1996 series]]

[[AC: 2008 film]]

** Creator/LouisLeterrier initially wanted Creator/MarkRuffalo for the role of Bruce Banner, but Marvel insisted on casting Creator/EdwardNorton instead. Ironically, Ruffalo would go on to replace Norton as Banner in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: During production of the second season, Creator/TedCassidy (who provided the Hulk's vocal effects for the first two seasons) died in January 1979 due to complications from heart surgery. As such, he was replaced by Charles Napier.

* TheOtherDarrin: Due to Creator/TedCassidy dying of complications from heart surgery in January 1979, Charles Napier provided the Hulk's vocal effects in his place.

* AuthorExistenceFailure: During production of the second season, Ted Cassidy (who provided the Hulk's vocal effects) died in January 1979 due to complications from heart surgery. As such, he was replaced by Charles Napier.

* TheOtherDarrin: Due to Ted Cassidy dying of complications from heart surgery in January 1979, Charles Napier provided the Hulk's vocal effects in his place.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Bruce Banner's name was changed to David because Kenneth Johnson did not want the main character to have what he regarded as a "stereotypically comic-booky alliterative name", although Creator/LouFerrigno claims that CBS thought the name "Bruce" sounded "too gay." Imagine Kenneth's surprise when it was pointed out to him that his lead actor was called '''B'''ill '''B'''ixby.

** A fourth made-for-TV movie, ''Revenge of the Incredible Hulk'', would have seen Banner resurrected, and with the ability to control his Hulk power. Apparently dying didn't exactly ''cure'' him. It just would have made it so that Banner could control himself when he transformed... that and actually ''talk'', something the Hulk really didn't do outside of the two-part episode "Prometheus" when Banner was [[spoiler:trapped halfway between human and Hulk.]] However, the movie was cancelled due to ''Death of the Incredible Hulk'' receiving low ratings. Another movie that would have been a backdoor pilot for ComicBook/IronMan was also being considered, and a She-Hulk movie was in pre-production at one point as well.

* AuthorExistenceFailure:
** During production of the second season, Ted Cassidy (who provided the Hulk's vocal effects) died in January 1979 due to complications from heart surgery. As such, he was replaced by Charles Napier.
** Bill Bixby died of complications from prostate cancer in 1994, which led to the fourth made-for-TV film being cancelled.

** Ironically, had Bixby not died, a fourth made-for-TV movie would have seen Banner resurrected, and with the ability to control his Hulk power, according to The Other Wiki. Apparently dying didn't exactly ''cure'' him. It just would have made it so that Banner could control himself when he transformed... that and actually ''talk'', something the Hulk really didn't do outside of the two-part episode "Prometheus" when Banner was [[spoiler:trapped halfway between human and Hulk.]] Another movie that would have been a backdoor pilot for ComicBook/IronMan was also being considered, and a She-Hulk movie was in pre-production at one point as well.