The Heartwarming Story Behind iZombie's Incredible Hulk Reference

During last week's penultimate episode of iZombie, series star Rahul Kohli

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"One of the very first shows we watched together was The Incredible Hulk with Bill Bixby &
Lou Ferrigno," tweeted Kohli. "It was one of our favourites. As a kid I would absolutely lose it when Bixby would suddenly open his eyes as he transformed into the Hulk. I would always mimic his performance. As an adult I finally booked my first show, iZombie. My parents were beaming with pride, both have been so supportive in helping me achieve my goals which hasn't been easy. They both watch the show together every week and still text me their reviews when they can, they love it. At the end of season three, my character experiments on himself and is infected with the zombie virus. Before shooting season four, Rob Thomas told me he planned to have the Doctor only be a zombie part-time. The vaccine only partly worked. Internally I was already drawing Hulk comparisons. Playing the brains was daunting, particularly when you have an actor like Rose raise the bar to insane heights. But what I was excited about with Ravi was being able to rage out, I've been practicing that since I was 5 years old! Sadly the opportunity never came. In the earliest draft of last night's episode, Ravi would get upset and knock out Dr. Saxon with a single punch. I figured it being my last ever zombie monthly, I'd ask Diane Ruggiero-Wright if Ravi could rage out Bixby-style as a little homage for Dad. Diane said she'd see what she could do. A draft or so later, it was finally in the script. I was so hyped and grateful to Diane for making that happen. I told our director, Michael Wale, what Diane had done for me and why, he was also a fan of the Hulk TV series and was pretty stoked for me. When I arrived on set to shoot the scene, Michael Wale told me that he rewatched a few clips from the show and wanted to shoot this rage out scene like they did... I was so touched by his and the crews' effort to put this dumb reference in there for me and my Dad. Was a good day."

And that’s the story. If it wasn’t for my Dad’s influence, I wouldn’t have wanted to be an actor. And this little rage out is a tribute to him, as a way of thanking him and telling him I love him. It’s also a way of expressing my love for everyone on iZOMBiE, they’re the best 💕 pic.twitter.com/xc7njV2YrO

— Rahul Kohli (@RahulKohli13) July 26, 2019

Funny enough, Kohli had not kept his Incredible Hulk ambitions particularly quiet over the years. Shortly before season four began, he mentioned the idea in a handful of interviews, including ours.

"What I wanted was, I grew up watching Bill Bixby in The Incredible Hulk with Lou Ferrigno," Kohli once told ComicBook.com. "So what I wanted was for Ravi to have this full-on zombie mode Hulk thing, so whenever something happened or he got angry, that's what would trigger it. No brains, no pale skin, no nothing. It would just be an homage to The Incredible Hulk. That's not going to happen; I've been told to shut my face."

iZombie airs on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW. This week sees the series finale, "All's Well That Ends Well," bring the curtain down on the critically-acclaimed series after five seasons.