Thanks to his work on 82 episodes of the Incredible Hulk television series that ran in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Lou Ferrigno has long been associated with the giant green monster from Marvel Comics. In recognition of this fact, Marvel Studios has twice hired the former bodybuilder to reprise his role as Hulk and voice him in their live-action movies, and he'll be doing it a third time next year.
The website Nuke The Fridge caught up with Ferigno at WonderCon in Anaheim, CA this past weekend, and got confirmation that he will be back to do the voice of Hulk in Joss Whedon's upcoming The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Thus far, Ferrigno's work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been pretty limiting, as he has only actually said four words. There was "Hulk Smash" in Louis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk:
And then his "Puny God" quip in the first Avengers movie:
We fully expected that Lou Ferrigno would be back to voice Hulk in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, but we have to wonder if his work load will increase. Bruce Banner, played by Mark Ruffalo, has definitely demonstrated that he has learned to have some control of the monster within him, so does that mean we could soon have scenes with extended Hulk dialogue? While it happens all the time in the comics, would it be considered a little too silly for mainstream audiences?
We already know that Hulk will have a fairly significant role to play in The Avengers: Age of Ultron, as early production had the character stomping around South Africa, and production art revealed that he will be going up against the Hulkbuster armor at some point in the sequel:
The Avengers: Age of Ultron is now shooting, and in addition to Ruffalo and Ferrigno the film will also be bringing together Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, James Spader, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Thomas Kretschmann, Don Cheadle and Paul Bettany. Production is expected to last for the next few months in multiple international locations, and after a lengthy post-production period the movie will be arriving in theaters on May 1st.
