Mark Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton after the former actor fumbled up in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Starring in the role of Bruce Banner, the character of Hulk has often dealt with various emotions.
Ranging from rage and depression to suicide, the deleted opening scene for The Incredible Hulk showcased a much darker tone for the movie. The MCU didn’t leave it alone, however, as Mark Ruffalo referenced the deleted scene in the MCU much later on.
When Bruce Banner Was Ready To Die!
Back in 2008, Edward Norton portrayed the role of Bruce Banner aka The Hulk. Receiving terrible ratings and some scenes that were too brutal for a PG-13 rating, Norton’s film had a much darker undertone in the film that was deleted.
During the opening scene of The Incredible Hulk (which was deleted), Bruce Banner was seen standing on an ice shelf in the Arctic with a g*n in his mouth. This scene was considered too dark for the film and was eventually cut from the movie. Stephen Broussard, the VP of Production and Development at Marvel Studios revealed in the book titled The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (via ScreenRant) why the scene was cut from the final movie.
“That scene works and is really cool. There’s nothing wrong with it. But if it’s not right for the movie, and the movie is telling you it doesn’t want to start that way, there’s a fearlessness in walking away from that. And that was not an example of reshooting something. That was simply, ‘No. Let’s walk away.’ That was a big education in postproduction about how money is spent and film is shot.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe wasn’t done with Hulk’s suicide attempt, however, much later on in 2012’s The Avengers, Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner references the event in his monologue.
Mark Ruffalo Referenced Bruce Banner’s Suicide Attempt!
In 2012, Mark Ruffalo replaced Edward Norton as Bruce Banner in The Avengers. When the team talks about their previous lives before forming the team, Mark Ruffalo references Bruce Banner’s suicide attempt by saying how he turned into the Hulk who spit the bullet out!
“I got low. I didn’t see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth… and the other guy spit it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping other people.“
Although people are glad that the suicidal opening scene of The Incredible Hulk was cut, it would have suited Edward Norton’s style of acting since the actor is known to take on these challenging roles.
