Edward Norton issues statement about his departure from The Avengers - The Avengers

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July 12 2010

Edward Norton issues statement about his departure from The Avengers. Norton make a classy statement about his disappointment that things hadn't worked out but thanking Marvel for the chance to be allowed to play this character and add to its history and for extending the offer for The Avengers. He also thanks the fans for their enthusiasm.

Now that is how you make a statement.

Buffyfantic | The Avengers | 21:08 CET | 33 comments total | tags:

Very classy indeed.

deadbessie | July 12, 21:22 CET

Good on him. This hasn't been handled well at all, but I like Norton for keeping it classy.

Matt7325 | July 12, 21:26 CET

Nortonesque continues on.

alcabongTV | July 12, 21:28 CET

Well that was nice. Now why couldn't Marvel have employed him for PR?!

BlueSkies | July 12, 21:32 CET

I'm hoping this is the last bit on this matter for now.But I thought this was worth starting another thread so all the players have had their say.Marvel,Norton's agent and finally Norton himself.

The only other two things I would think it would be worth making any more threads on is if Joss himself made offical comments and I don't think he will until he's offically confirmed as the director at Comic Con.Or if there is offical casting of the new actor in the role.

But Norton statement is how Marvel should of approached their statement.If anything,this is going to make Marvel and Kevin Feige look worst.

Buffyfantic | July 12, 21:43 CET

I actually bought 'The Incredible Hulk' last week to have a nice complete collection when it comes to the 'Marvel Universe' movies - so it is disappointing to me that Norton will not be continuing as Banner. Why are Marvel going on about creating a consistant movie universe if they are recasting one of their leads.

Lucky I only played 3 euro for the DVD (thanks HMV summer sale!)

angeliclestat | July 12, 21:44 CET

Well, what a nice man. The beginning, about spoiling the "magic" of movies is just something you don't hear enough. I love it.

Jaymii | July 12, 23:11 CET

I wonder what exactly happened?

WheelsOfJoy | July 12, 23:31 CET

Classy is the right word. Thanks for posting this, to add a little professionalism and maturity to the situation.

palehorse | July 12, 23:38 CET

I feel bad for Edward Norton. I like him as an actor and I liked him as the Hulk. I'm disappointed by the smear campaign they're waging against him. I hope they are able to find a worthy actor to replace him.

Linnea1928 | July 13, 00:31 CET

Yeah, and he's the one who's a non-professional non-team-player... riiiiight, Marvel!

baxter | July 13, 00:49 CET

[ edited by azzers on 2010-07-13 01:53 ]

azzers | July 13, 01:53 CET

I was bummed that that I wasn't going to see my favorite actor work with my favorite writer for this movie but I'm glad at least Edward was at least able to have a good meeting with Joss. Maybe they can work together in the future.

As for Edward's supposedly poor behavior during the making and promotion of The Incredible Hulk, here's an article by Variety summarizing what really happened. So I don't think it's fair to blame Edward for all the negativity.

spiralout9 | July 13, 02:24 CET

Well Buddha bless him. That was a lovely thing to say.

Tonya J | July 13, 04:15 CET

How can an article be "what really happened" when it says quite plainly says, "My sense is."

That's an opinion.

And if I took this article at face value, then I see no reason why Marvel would actually want to get rid of Norton. He sounds like a perfect employee. Norton, should be the one not wanting to have anything to do with this movie. This article makes it sound like they screwed him over, he got angry but didn't get his way, Marvel got everything they wanted, and then didn't want Norton back. How does that make sense? Does Snidely Whiplash make an appearance in the follow-up?

If Joss wrote that story in a script, we'd probably rip it for making absolutely no sense.

[ edited by azzers on 2010-07-13 04:39 ]

azzers | July 13, 04:37 CET

Okay, I'm sorry, but I'm not getting all the Norton love.

"I don't like to talk much about the business of making movies because it means a lot to me to protect the audience's fullest enjoyment of the 'magic' that films can have." What? This is the guy who bad-mouthed his Hulk film because he had some issues with the final cut. I don't care who you are, if you trash a project in public, don't expect the people you worked with to ask you to come back.

He's expensive, wants too much control, and while a good actor and turned in a fine performance, isn't exactly iconic to the character. Or rather, he didn't make the character iconic in the same way Downey has made Tony Stark iconic, or Reeve made Superman. On top of all that he didn't speak well of the old Hulk film and did nothing to promote it. I don't understand why anyone was expecting Marvel to ask him back, or why any Whedon fan would care to see him there.

And this isn't even venturing into what would happen when he might have decided to start changing Joss's script, directing, or editing. I think if that happened we'd be seeing a very different set of responses here.

flakbait | July 13, 05:05 CET

Thanks for posting this. Norton's statement reinforces my perception of him as a class act, along with the obvious .... that he's one of our finest American actors.

I don't follow Hollywood gossip (as opposed to news about projects and how stuff is actually made) so I'm not sure where all your information is coming from flakbait.
But I know that Norton did in fact promote his Hulk movie, at least on the TV talk show circuit, because I watched those shows.

There are a very few actors and industry people and musicians who will get me to tune in to a late night talk show, and Norton is one of them.

Shey | July 13, 05:33 CET

So they need to replace Ed Norton with someone of the same basic frame, who has a big range of acting ability, plenty of cred with the fans, and can work well with Joss? Is Alan available?

RayHill | July 13, 06:29 CET

That was a very pleasant statement considering how I got some impression he was vaguely difficult to work with. That said, I sort of do imagine it was probably a financial issue like his agent hinted at despite Marvel trying to go out of their way.

That said, I'm so confused from a Joss angle. I mean he's so already basically locked in but I can't help but panic that he's not necessarily going to be involved with whatever Avengers announcements go down at comicon. (And would they already have the time to recast by then?)

orangewaxlion | July 13, 06:55 CET

Kevin Feige is going to have an awkward time at the next Disney meeting.

Andy Dufresne | July 13, 07:43 CET

That's the advantage of having an agent. Norton can play the "good cop" thanking the fans, while the agent plays "bad cop" in confronting Feige's snide statement.

OneTeV | July 13, 11:46 CET

Kevin Feige is going to have an awkward time at the next Disney meeting.
Andy Dufresne | July 13, 07:43 CET

And well deserved. Missing the connection though. Does Disney have a connection to Marvel Studios?

Shey | July 13, 13:02 CET

Erm, Disney owns Marvel.

Jaymii | July 13, 13:11 CET

Thanks Jaymii, I didn't know.

Shey | July 13, 13:41 CET

Okay so in response to someone who was questioning why everyone is loving Norton and pointed out his reputation as a control freak that has lots of demands, well just look at his work on American History X, he basically decided that the director was wrong in his approach(not enough Norton-time) and had the whole thing re-edited to the point where Tony Kaye didn't want his name involved! Well that's a bad team player(allegedly)! Although I'm really glad he did take control cause it turned out great, so maybe he actually had a point in seizing the editing reigns?! hmm...

Now as I said above, his approach to this debacle was amazingly professional and very polite. But he does have a history for being immensely difficult to work with and so I had considered this perhaps causing a strain on his relationship to Joss's work. but no one really knows what happens when ego hit so perhaps leaving reputations aside and looking at their work is the best approach. Norton is a great actor, but we'll never know how he would have dealt with the Avengers.

[ edited by BlueSkies on 2010-07-13 14:13 ]

BlueSkies | July 13, 14:09 CET

I don't want to add fuel to this fire about Norton being difficult, but maybe someone can learn me: How does an actor take a film away from its director and edit it themselves? Doesn't that cross all sorts of union rules?

Tonya J | July 13, 14:25 CET

Oh well apparently, true or otherwise I don't know, Kaye himself was terribly difficult and was taking a very long time(like 18 months or something) to edit and the producers wanted it done quicker, also Kaye was changing the ending or something, I can't clearly recall cause it was so long ago, but Norton went in and said I'll edit it quicker so they gave it to him. Kaye went out on a smear campaign and took a case against the DGA as a result. Now Kaye says Norton was difficult, Norton got the film the way he wanted it so I don't think he said anything back. The point of that comment was to show that the rumours about Norton being a control freak may be true, but usually he has damn good reason to be!!

BlueSkies | July 13, 14:33 CET

Joss is well known to be a control ~~freak~~ enthusiast, too. Ultimately, we don't know what happens behind the scenes. It's probably best not to go on public proclamations during DGA disputes and such, though, because money is at stake.

gossi | July 13, 16:34 CET

And much like Norton, Joss has a damn good reason to be a control "enthusiast" too!! Nice phrasing btw!

BlueSkies | July 13, 16:43 CET

One letter does not = class. It equals a good editor / pr guy.

Norton was brought on to IH with expectations that he could make massive changes. His efforts were frustrated and the relationship between him and Marvel soured. Marvel CLEARLY was not enthusiastic about moving forward with Norton. Although there were talks, Norton was the lone 'Modern Marvel Hero' actor not listed as an Avenger participant over tha past year. They knew it could go either way - and after meeting with Marvel (and Joss - a guy that knows what it takes to put together an ensemble that can work well together year after year), Marvel went in another direction.

I don't put blame in any one court. I do however recognize that the decision to go forward without Norton seems clearly to have been based upon difficulties in working together, and that is a good sign to me. If they put toegther a cast for all of their movies that will 'play ball', then in the long run it will give us greater continutity. This may have been a bump in the path, but hopefully it will lead to better continuity in the future.

jgsugden | July 13, 18:08 CET

Erm, Disney owns Marvel.

Well, Disney won't own upcoming Marvel Studios pics like "Thor", "Captain America", "The Avengers" and "Runaways". Those will be distributed theatrically and on home video by Paramount Pictures.

I hear Disney has Marti Noxon on tap for "Iron Man 4" -- that's what I read in a Variety interview.

Mcjw_serenity | July 13, 18:11 CET

Iron Man 4?! DId I fall asleep and miss Iron Man 3? Hate it when the Dollhouse take me for a year and I miss new film releases!

BlueSkies | July 13, 18:21 CET

If they're doing Avengers, there has to be a cohesion between the heroes. I enjoyed the Hulk movie with Norton, but it was very like the TV show version of the Hulk.

What are they using as basis for the new movie? Ultimates? Wondering because of Jackson. Don't really like that version myself, but as long as it all gels.

redeem147 | July 13, 20:44 CET

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