Marvel Studio’s plans to make a series of supehero films all leading up to The Avengers has certainly got a lot of people excited, although there’s always been a slight problem. They actually made both the first Iron Man movie and The Incredible Hulk before The Avengers plans were put in place, with the idea only being added in during post-production, meaning the involvement of the actors from those films in The Avengers couldn’t be assured.
While Marvel quickly moved to secure Robert Downey Jr’s participation in both an Iron Man sequel and The Avengers, Ed Norton’s involvement has been left up in the air. Initially it didn’t sound like he’d be interested anyway, but more recently he’s said he’d be up for returning, but now it sounds like Marvel wouldn’t want him back even if he is keen.
Hitfix reports that Marvel wants an unknown for the part, despite the fact Avengers director Joss Whedon has met with Norton, and that both of them were reportedly excited about working together. The reasoning for dropping him seems to be money. Marvel is well known for not wanting to pay its talent too much cash, which has led many to call them cheapskates. However you can sort of understand it with their Avengers plans, simply because too many big pay deals would make the movie prohibitively expensive to make (although Marvel is incredibly tight). As a result they’ve ensured that as they’ve cast Captain America and Thor, they put together deals that would ensure The Avengers was still financially feasible. Downey Jr. will get millions, but the likes of Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans will get a lot less. Norton would be another big pay day, which it seems Marvel isn’t interested in.
There’s also another possibilitiy, which is that the comic company have dropped Norton because they didn’t like working with him on The Incredible Hulk. The movie wasn’t a huge hit and there were reports that (as often with Norton), he was awkward on set, wanting far more input into the creative process than Marvel really wanted to give him.
Many people are already suggesting this is bad news as it’ll lead to a big gap in continuity, although from a business point of view, you can sort of understand my Marvel wouldn’t want to pay millions for an actor they found awkward to work with, who’s unlikely to get much screentime anyway (as a lot of the time he’ll be a giant green slab of CG), and whose previous appearance in the role wasn’t all that successful. It would be nice if they could work something out though, as it would be great to see Norton back when The Avengers arrives in 2012.