Almost 50 years after the 70sThe Incredible Hulkshow debuted its first episodes, the fact there were “a lot of arguments” about the prospect of making the Hulk red rather than green feels all the wilder. There have been an assortment oflive-action Hulk adaptationsover the years, with an equally varied range of receptions to their specific takes on the iconicMarvelhero and his lore. Naturally,the MCU timelinehas had the most long-lasting of these takes, though the franchise’s approach to Bruce Banner and the directions it has taken him in have seen some divided responses over the years.
However, taking the character in some perhaps less than predictable directions is something of a staple for the Hulk, as the originalThe Incredible Hulkshow itself wasn’t afraid to experiment when it came to its version of Banner and his alter ego, even changing his first name for its story. With that said, though,The Incredible Hulkstill drew its proverbial line in the sand somewhere - and it turns out that was when it came to taking the Hulk from being green to being red, even if it sounds like there was plenty of lively debate about the topic.
Marvel’s Main Hulk Being Green Has Been A Focal Part Of The Character For Decades
When most people think of the Hulk, the first things they think of are likely his impressive stature, and the fact he is quite strikingly bright green in the majority of his depictions. Of course, the Hulk being green in the first place is something of a happy accident, as the plan was originally to make the character gray, with the color that has come to define the main Hulk coming in later - and the gray color instead being conventionally given to the Hulk’s Joe Fixit persona instead.
As Stan Lee himself explained in theWeb of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable Peopledocumentaryseries, the Hulk was based loosely around the idea of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and was initially gray. However, Stan Lee found after going forward with this design that the specific shade of gray of the Hulk was different on every page, believing this to be because the printer was struggling with this specific color.
Stan Lee also discussed seeing parallels between the Hulk and Frankenstein, which also adds another interesting dimension to the Hulk becoming green, since Frankenstein is also often depicted in some shade of green himself.
Instead,Lee said he shifted the Hulk’s color from gray to green, and found not only that the printer had greater success with this, but also that he was able to coin fun terms like “the green goliath” for the character, which would go on to become a primary defining characteristic of the Hulk. This makes it all the more noteworthy that there were talks about swapping green out for another color when it came to the Hulk’s first live-action appearance.
The Incredible Hulk Executive Producer & Developer “Really Lobbied” For The 70s Show Hulk To Be Red Instead
In 2014’sBack #70,The Incredible Hulk’s Executive Producer and developer Kenneth Johnson explained he’d hoped to make a big change to Marvel’s green giant, stating “I had a lot of arguments with Stan and the studio abut why the Hulk was green… I said, ‘what does that mean, he’s the envious Hulk?’ I said, ‘The colour of rage is red.’ I really lobbied for making the creature red opposed to green, but they’d already let me change [the] name from Bruce to David… so I guess I was stuck with a great frustration.”
On one level, it’s completely understandable why Johnson felt this way. The color red is associated more with anger than green, and the looser way in whichThe Incredible Hulkadapted the Hulk lore in many ways meant it theoretically could have been possible to make this change, potentially ensuring the idea of the Hulk - an anger-fueled berserker - could be more readily understood by broader audiences, some of whom wouldn’t be that familiar with the Hulk in the first place.
However, it’s also an idea that has some immediate problems that explain why the many arguments Johnson alludes to having about whether the Hulk should be green or not ended with him remaining the same. The bright green hue of the Hulk was an immediate way for him to stand out and be recognizable, be that in comics or in a show, and so making the show’s version of the character red was sure to confuse audiences. Indeed, even the Red Hulk of the comics wouldn’t appear in Marvel until 2008, meaning they couldn’t adapt things via this angle either.
As Johnson says, the factThe Incredible Hulkhad already made the considerable change of altering Bruce Banner’s name to David Banner likely made changing the Hulk to red harder too. WithThe Incredible Hulkalready veering from the source material in a major way, it stands even more to reason that any requests to make other huge changes would be met with more resistance - especially when the Hulk doesn’t strictly need to be red to communicate he’s a creature of great rage, and can do so by his actions anyway.
At the time of the 70s Hulk show’s release, it was the first live-action adaptation of the Marvel comic hero. As such, experimenting with major features like Banner’s first name or the Hulk’s hue seems more par for the course, in the same sense that many other Marvel characters have historically undergone at least a light dose of tweaks and adjustments in their first or most prominent live-action adaptations.
However,the selection of Hulk movies, shows, games and, of course, comics that have released since that time really serve to cement the specific version of the Hulk as we know him, even if some small details find themselves adjusted between these various releases. With this in mind, hearing that the first-ever Hulk live-action adaptation could in a different world have gone through with Johnson’s request and totally changed something as major as making the Hulk red instead of green seems all the more surreal - and all the more interesting.
Nowthe MCU Red Hulkhas given the character his first live-action appearance, knowing a red Hulk of sorts could have appeared decades before holds even more weight. While changing the Hulk from green to red inThe Incredible Hulkwouldn’t have meant Marvel had to change the comic Hulk or further adaptations, it is interesting to note how this could have had knock-on effects on other releases, be that in big or little ways. In this way,The Incredible Hulk’s legacy and behind-the-scenes plans continue to be significant for Marvel, even over 40 years since its last episode debuted.
