Looks like there might be a Hulk v Hulk fight brewing, but they’re both green. The star of the original Incredible Hulk television show, Lou Ferrigno, says that not only is Bill Bixby still his favorite, but that he also can’t take Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk seriously. Shots fired!
In all honesty, I seriously doubt any of his comments were meant to start a fight. Ferrigno, despite being a large enough man to portray the Hulk with only purple shorts and green makeup, seems to be a big ol teddy bear.
At the Montreal Comic-Con earlier this month, he said the following about not only Ruffalo, but all the other actors to Hulk-out onscreen:
“Mark is a wonderful actor. But we’ve had three different actors; we’ve had Eric Bana, Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo. I like Bill Bixby the best, I like Edward Norton. But Ruffalo…I think he’s a wonderful actor, he blends in with the Marvel aspect of the Avengers, but I can’t take him seriously enough,”
Being a child of the ’80s myself, I have to agree with the guy. The Bixby/Ferrigno Hulk will be my favorite until the end of time. Which is, ironically, probably around the same time that Marvel will stop making Avengers movies. Despite having virtually no SFX budget, the original Hulk series blew me away as a kid; I would drop whatever I was doing if I knew a rerun was on one of our five channels.
It’s nice that the original Hulk star has love for his successors, even Bana. Finally seeing the big green guy onscreen after 13 years was beyond awesome, even if we got way too many shots of mossy rocks.
Anyways, Ferrigno went on with more explanation of why he can’t take Ruffalo’s Hulk seriously, saying:
“Bill has that intensity, and you knew that when he was in danger, you could feel that intensity. But because of Marvel and Disney, they’ve taken a different direction. You can’t take it as seriously as the original series.”
He makes a good point; the mood in the Avengers movies have been pretty light. Bixby (R.I.P.), Bana and Norton’s movies were full enough of doom and gloom, so the change was certainly nice.
But what do you think? Are you a fan of Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk? As always, sound off below with your thoughts.