Original Incredible Hulk Actor Lou Ferrigno Is “Not Very Impressed” With Marvel Studios’ Hulk

The Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno is “not very impressed” with the way Disney-owned Marvel Studios is shaping the Hulk, depicted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a CGI creation brought to life by actor Mark Ruffalo. The former professional bodybuilder, who played the green super-powered alter-ego of Bill Bixby’s Dr. David Banner in the 1978 television show, takes issue with the digital technology used to transform Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner into the strongest Avenger: according to Ferrigno, Marvel’s computer-generated Hulk isn’t “hideous” enough, and “nothing can replace” what Bixby and Ferrigno accomplished on the classic television series.

“Today you got all this CGI and everything. I don’t know what direction the Hulk is going,” Ferrigno told FabTV. “That’s why a lot of people go back, they refer back to the series because it’s more organic, more authentic.” When it comes to modern Hulk, Ferrigno admitted he doesn’t like “the way it looks.”

“Because it’s CGI, and nothing can replace what Bill Bixby and I did,” Ferrigno said. “And the way Disney is shaping it, I’m not very impressed with it.”

Asked about the sweater-wearing Hulk in Avengers: Endgame, where Banner achieved unity with the green-skinned Other Guy after an 18-month process in a gamma lab, Ferrigno said Hulk “needs to be hideous.”

“It needs to be a creature. They’ve taken away the chemistry,” he said. “That’s why a lot of people go back to the series. I have thousands of fans coming up and telling me how much they’re not happy with the way the Hulk looks.”

Ferrigno echoed similar sentiments during a Canada convention appearance over the summer, where he called Ruffalo a “wonderful actor” before admitting he doesn’t take Ruffalo’s version “seriously enough.”

“Bill has that intensity, and you knew that when he was in danger, you could feel that intensity,” Ferrigno said of his late co-star at Montreal Comiccon. “But because of Marvel and Disney, they’ve taken a different direction. You can’t take it as seriously as the original series.”

The actor later said he was disappointed with Endgame because it was “extreme with the spaceships, the shooting, the outer space,” and it failed to depict the Hulk — now possessing Banner’s genius-level intellect as part of an amalgamation between the two, forming Smart Hulk — as a monstrous creature.

Giving the Hulk Banner’s personality and making the character articulate “spoiled it,” added Ferrigno, who blamed Ruffalo and Disney for the more humanistic take on Hulk.

Avengers: Endgame is now streaming on Disney+ and available to own on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray.