Hulk Movies

After “The Incredible Hulk” television series was canceled in 1982, six years later three television movies, with Bill Bixby and Lou Ferringo reprising their original roles as Dr. David Banner and the Hulk respectively, were produced airing on NBC.

 

The first movie “The Incredible Hulk Returns” was presented in 1988. This movie was the first time that Marvel Universe characters appeared, as Kenneth Johnson, the writer, producer and director of the television show left out any references to the Marvel Universe during the show’s run from 1977 to 1982. In this movie, Banner meets with a former student that has obtained the hammer of Thor, a Viking warrior who has been prevented from entering into Valhalla, a place where soldiers slain in combat enter. The movie helped to set up a back-door pilot for a Thor-centric live-action series for television.

 

In 1989, “The Trial of the Incredible Hulk” was produced for television. In this film, again mixing in Marvel Universe characters, David Banner meets Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer who is also the masked Daredevil. Together, Daredevil and Hulk fight the Kingpin of Crime, referred to by his name, Wilson Fisk. Like the first film, this was set up as a back-door pilot for a Daredevil-centric live-action series for television.

 

The last movie was filmed in 1990 and was titled “The Death of the Incredible Hulk.” In this film, David Banner becomes infatuated with an Eastern European spy and goes on to save kidnapped scientists. At the end of the film, Hulk fatally falls from an airplane, switching back to his human form before dying.

 

Though it looked as though Hulk died in the 1990 film, more movies were in the planning, including one titled, “Revenge of the Incredible Hulk.” However, this movie never came to fruition as Bill Bixby died in 1993 after losing a battle with cancer.