In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Jean Grey takes control of Smart Hulk and inadvertently unleashes Bruce Banner's Savage side. It's up to the web-slinger to stop the rampaging Avenger, and he eventually does so by reminding the Jade Giant that he's Peter Parker and they're friends.
With rubble from the destroyed building webbed to him, Hulk takes a step back and lets himself fall to the ground below. It's a moment that's generated a lot of discussion, but has yet to be addressed by the movie's creative team.
Now, James Unsworth, who performed The Hulk's physical performance via motion-capture in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, has shared fresh insights into his time on set and how the Green Goliath's role continuously evolved in the record-breaking blockbuster.
"There were a few other versions that we worked on. In some, Spider-Man basically used a Shocker gauntlet to Superman-punch him and knock him out," he said of how the battle originally ended. "From what I understand, the test audiences didn't take to it. They thought Hulk got knocked out too easily."
"We then went back into the studio and refilmed the ending where he gets thrown into the building and basically stops the attack. We didn't know the line that Tom Holland was going to say, but the idea we had was that Hulk catches his reflection, realises he's this monster and chooses to let go. We kept calling it: Hulk isn't beaten; he just commits suicide," Unsworth added, offering some insights into the hero's fractured mind.
Bruce Banner doesn't succeed in taking his own life, but he is taken to a psychiatric hospital, meaning he's off the board for this December's Avengers: Doomsday.
Unsworth went on to explain the process of figuring out the Savage Hulk and confirmed that one particularly violent moment was cut when the studio decided it was a step too far. That would have shown old Jade Jaws attempting to kill Spider-Man by drowning him.
"We did versions where he ran on all fours. We did versions where he moved almost like a muscular insect. We did versions where he couldn't keep his rage under control and was almost twitching," the actor explained. "We did versions where he was the complete opposite: super in control, almost like a Shakespearean villain - very big, tall and powerful."
"There were also some bits where Hulk was really brutal. He slammed Spider-Man into the floor after a water main had broken, and Hulk was standing on his chest trying to drown him in the water," Unsworth explained. "We got the note back that it was too brutal. He's still an Avenger at the end of the day."
It's unclear whether we'll get to see any of these scrapped scenes, but it sounds like most either didn't make it past the pre-production stage or were ideas that Marvel Studios dropped relatively early on. Still, we'd like to think that alternate ending to the Spider-Man vs. Hulk might be included as a deleted scene on the Digital and Blu-ray releases.
In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it's a Brand New Day for Peter Parker. Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him—and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him—sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control.
But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves - a powerful villain no one can even see. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker, but he hasn’t forgotten them.
In our review, we concluded by saying, "Spider-Man: Brand New Day is everything fans could want. Emotional, hilarious, and heartfelt, it’s an action-packed love letter to the comics and one of Spidey’s best big-screen adventures. Spider-Man has never been more amazing."
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters.