It has taken a long time but Disney has announced that the Edward Norton-led 2008 film “The Incredible Hulk” is finally coming to the Disney+ service from tomorrow (June 16th) after the rights to the film reverted back to Marvel today – fifteen years after the film’s release.
The film will be added to its collection of Marvel Cinematic Universe titles. The inclusion will leave Sony’s two Tom Holland-led “Spider-Man” sequels – “Spider-Man: Far From Home” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” – as the only MCU films not available to stream on the Disney+ service.
“Fast X” helmer Louis Leterrier directed “The Incredible Hulk,” which was released in cinemas on June 13th 2008 with reviews quite mixed. It marked the second instalment in the MCU and the only film to be distributed by Universal Pictures.
Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell and Christina Cabot also starred, whilst Robert Downey Jr. made an uncredited cameo as Tony Stark.
After mostly being ignored for years, especially with Mark Ruffalo replacing Norton as Bruce Banner in the “Avengers” films, Marvel has seemingly come to re-embrace the film first by reintroducing William Hurt’s General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in “Captain America: Civil War” and using the character several times since.
More recently, Tim Roth reprised his Abomination role from the film in a key supporting part in the “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” series, whilst the CG version of his character also appeared in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”.
The upcoming “Captain America: Brave New World” sounds like something of an unofficial sequel to the film, with not only General Ross returning as a character (Harrison Ford replacing the late William Hurt), but also Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross and Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns/The Leader also coming back.
“Captain America: Brave New World” is currently scheduled to open in theaters on July 26th 2024.
