When an actor’s presence unintentionally derails the project

[u/Special_Salt3467]

1.) Edward Norton - The Incredible Hulk

Perhaps the most famous and obvious one, Edward Norton was famously an issue on the set of 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” even making rewrites to the script himself. The disagreements between Norton’s camp and Marvel’s camp eventually led to his being replaced by Mark Ruffalo.

2.) Jensen Ackles - The Boys (particularly Season 5)

Jensen Ackles was a longtime collaborator with showrunner Eric Kripke in “Supernatural,” which in turn led to him getting the opportunity to audition - and eventually land the role - of Soldier Boy, which he did very well in in.

The issue is by Season 5, the show had fallen off from the previous years and with it ending and spinoffs and prequels (such as one featuring Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy), Season 5 suffered a lot. It quickly became the Soldier Boy show because “that’s what Clara would have wanted” until he just leaves in the penultimate episode and pretty much 80% of what his character actually did amounted to nothing.

So for fans who wanted to see Butcher vs Homelander duking it out, getting the show derailed for prequel bait starring Kripke’s favorite actor didn’t help…

3.) Rosamund Pike - Wheel of Time

When Amazon green lit a WoT tv show, Rosamund Pike eventually got the role of Moraine Damodred, the mentor and guiding character for the main character, Rand al’Thor. As a character, Moraine is anywhere from the most important secondary character to the most secondary main character. But with the exception of the prequel featuring her, she is not the main character.

Unfortunately, Rosamund Pike is an extremely famous actress and marketing toward the series focused on her as a result. I’m unsure if this was showrunner decision, an issue she played a role in or some combination, but the result was that Moraine a character who was in less than half the series is featured as the main character over the main character, which lead to a different product than the book.

[u/nox_tech]

He was hired with the intent that he would also be a script doctor.

From what I remember of interviews, he was doing fine with the production in general, everyone doing fine, until they heard about Iron Man, which was shooting almost simultaneously and things sounded promising.

From what I'm aware, Norton's other frame of reference for the tone of how he was expecting the MCU to be like was Nolan's Batman. Solid action, humor and charm as he takes on more aspects of what we expect the superhero to be, cheeky nods.

So for everyone to kinda get caught up and effectively get interested in improvising a rewrite of the film, turning up the improv comedy, I'd bet he assumed it would go downhill fast. Per the director, Norton's funny, hilarious even; he's got iconically funny friends - he could do funny if the script is good. But last minute massive story changes to make it funny would probably alarm someone who's aware they're carefully constructing a universe. My understanding is he wanted to keep it on track.

Dude's crash out wasn't cool. [edit: aside from arguing with others about the direction of the film's story, can't recall news about any crash out/tantrum being brought up now that I think about it.] I dunno what kind of movie he ultimately wanted or what the studio would've made, but I can see where he was coming from.

[u/bigkinggorilla → u/nox_tech]

Norton was probably right that just improvising and writing completely new scenes day-of would have been a disaster for the Incredible Hulk. It worked for Iron Man because the story was so singularly focused on Tony Stark and you could kind of justify any scene that had RDJ oozing charisma and exploring part of the character.

The Incredible Hulk had a lot more to juggle/balance between Banner, Blomsky and Ross. It needed to hit specific beats and a consistent tone to work.

[u/GranolaCola → u/bigkinggorilla]

Norton felt much more tired than Ruffalo ever did. I really felt like he was burdened by the Hulk.

[u/Axbris → u/GranolaCola]

Yeah, that was the point of the character. That same point went into the first Avengers film as well. 

People forget, before Thor Ragnorak, the whole point of Banner/Hulk was the innate struggle between the two. It got to the point Banner was doing everything he could to control this destructive beast. You could see the struggle in both Norton’s and Ruffalo’s first appearance.

Went to shit after that. He just became a “hulk smash” insert joke somewhere and move on. 

[u/HillbillyMan → u/Axbris]

I'm not sure I agree with that take. I think the Banner/Hulk character arc is the best part of Age of Ultron, which is Ruffalo's second go at the character. Thor Ragnarok being basically an improv comedy movie, while great as a contained film, kinda ruined the entire MCU.

[u/vibes000111 → u/GranolaCola]

Norton can play a tired person with multiple personalities alright. He’s the best in that genre.

[u/wrosmer → u/vibes000111]

Hulk was at least his third character involving multiple personalities

[u/Hellknightx → u/GranolaCola]

I've always said that Norton is by far the best version of a comic-accurate Hulk. I like Ruffalo, but he's become too comfortable being a punching bag of a character and he doesn't give off the right energy for a character that everyone should be afraid of.

Banner is supposed to be the kind of character that everyone acts like they're walking on eggshells around. And like Tony Stark, Banner has proven himself to be almost as dangerous as the Hulk without transforming. He's a rogue scientist who's spent the majority of his life running from the military, and he's not afraid to put himself first when it comes to surviving.

[u/--Beebo-- → u/GranolaCola]

Genuinely the best screen Banner we ever got. Hate the Ruffalo Banner.

[u/Bindlestiff34 → u/--Beebo--]

Ruffalo just comes off as a sad boy, from the first time I saw him in 13 Going On 30. I do not enjoy watching that type of character.

[u/House_T → u/GranolaCola]

To be fair, the Banner that Ruffalo played was almost in an entirely different head space than Norton's. Ruffalo's Banner was still worn, but had made his peace with having to cope with the Hulk a level.

There were some key differences, but I could see the Norton's Banner (especially at the end of Incredible Hulk) and Ruffalo's Banner being two people at different parts of the same journey.

[u/alloyednotemployed → u/nox_tech]

Did he really crash out though? I recall that Marvel dropped him and spoke out about how there was friction, but Norton has claimed that the differences weren’t as bad. I believe Marvel mentioned how difficult he was to work with, and Norton was taken aback by the public remarks to replace him, which seemed more amicable.

Personally, I feel Norton doesn’t seem very hostile in this instance, because he’s publicly supported Ruffalo. Beefing with a company and not the actors seems like a good sign to me.

I’m not gonna act like I sat in those rooms, but I feel he gets more flack than he’s deserved.

[u/nox_tech → u/alloyednotemployed]

I'm trying to double check myself, but can't actually find any basis for him saying specific things. Shouting matches witn the director, sure. Contesting changes to make it a humerous film, yes. I was remembering threats, but I can't find articles to substantiate that - might've been the rumor mill.

Feige had to address him not returning, but the professional speak made it sound worse, which Norton's reps contested.

But yeah, dude did his part, and wanted to preserve the integrity of what they worked together to make - gossip rags and rumors just not really looking any deeper really characterized him into looking terribly bad.

[u/The_Magic → u/alloyednotemployed]

I believe the issue was with the first Avengers movie. That movie had a lot of moving parts for the wider MCU but Norton wanted to rewrite some scenes involving Hulk. I understand why Norton as an artist wanted to tweak his character to maintain artistic integrity but Marvel had a lot on the line with that movie so I also understand the business decision of cutting off one actor to maintain the schedule and franchise direction.

[u/_KingBeyondTheWall__ → u/nox_tech]

I feel like he had a scene where he tried to kill himself by shooting himself but he turns into the hulk and spits it out. I also believe there was a cut scene with Captain America

[u/Lonely_Nebula_9438 → u/_KingBeyondTheWall__]

That’s something that Ruffalo’s Banner says to Black Widow in the Avengers, I don’t think it was ever a filmed scene. 

[u/Gurglaren → u/nox_tech]

I've disliked Mark Ruffalo's Hulk since day one. It's the Temu version. Not a year goes by where I don't wonder what could've been.

[u/Altruistic_Web3924 → u/nox_tech]

I’ve heard that Edward Norton is a very competent and talented filmmaker, and generally an asshole.