1. Edward Norton/Mark Ruffalo - Dr. Bruce Banner
When it came time for Marvel to bring the Hulk into their cinematic universe, they tried to get people to forget that Eric Bana had played the character a few year earlier by hiring Edward Norton. Norton took his Hulk gig seriously, and insisted on re-writing the script and working on the movie in ways that either made him really annoying or super helpful for the rest of the crew. I'm going with annoying. Anyway, Norton's performance was fairly well-received in
The Incredible Hulk, but it's still a little boring and generic for my liking. And then, woah, Mark Ruffalo... what are
you doing here? "Saving this character," says Ruffalo in this fantasy I'm suddenly writing. "Is that all right with you?" And it was totally all right, given that - for the first time in what seems like ever - an actor managed to nail Dr. Bruce Banner's persona with the right amount of self-deprecation, humour and underlying angst. Joss Whedon's
The Avengers was a success of many levels, but casting Ruffalo in the role (Norton didn't return due to "creative differences") proved inspiring. Did... somebody... say... solo... movie?
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