Matthew McConaughey says he approached Marvel to play Hulk, was rejected: ‘They said no, thank you’

Actor Matthew McConaughey has said that he wanted to play the Hulk, but Marvel was not interested. The actor also expressed his love for the 1970s Hulk television series, in which the character was popularly played by Lou Ferrigno.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, McConaughey and host Josh Horowitz began talking about the Hulk series, and the Oscar-winning actor noted how interested he was in playing the character, and even spoke to Marvel about it. “They said, ‘No, thank you’.”

The Hulk is played by Mark Ruffalo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ruffalo took over from Edward Norton, who appeared as Bruce Banner/Hulk in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, but did not return for more films following disagreements with Marvel.

After the release of the film, it was widely reported that Edward Norton was difficult to work with on set, and that he insisted on rewriting the script himself. This piece of information was corroborated recently by Norton himself, when during the roast of Bruce Willis he said, “I tried to be like you. I did a big action movie called The Incredible Hulk. You know what went wrong? I wanted a better script.” According to Deadline, one Marvel insider described Norton as a “wolf in the hen house.”

It’s not clear when exactly McConaughey approached Marvel. Eric Bana played the character in Ang Lee’s 2003 film, independent of the MCU.

Also read: The real reason Marvel fired Edward Norton from Avengers, replaced him with Mark Ruffalo as Hulk

Although Ruffalo has appeared in several MCU films as the Hulk, he has said that the chances of a solo Hulk movie are bleak.

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