The Avengers: The Version That Could Have Been

We are now just three weeks away from The Avengers going on general release in the UK. The summer movie season is nearly on the way, and few are as anticipated as Joss Whedon’s Marvel team up.

However, had the movie (or TV) gods been kinder we could have had The Avengers movie a long time ago, as a matter of fact we could of had a trilogy and been on the latest reboot already.

Back in the late 70s and early 80s Bill Bixby was the mild mannered Doctor Bruce Banner. The TV Series of The Incredible Hulk ran for 5 years and was a success with audiences.

Once the series finished, a number of TV movie specials were produced and Bill Bixby once again returned to the role, he also directed a couple of them. In 1988 The Incredible Hulk Returns saw our angry green giant team up with Thor. The results were not good. I think it’s fair to say that fans were disappointed to say the least.

Two years later saw Captain America get the big screen treatment, although filmed in 1989 it wasn’t released until 1992. Bypassing cinemas the movie aired on cable TV and was released on video. It’s recently been rereleased on DVD, with a front cover worthy of a Mockbuster.

In 1998 Nick Fury Agent of Shield was a TV movie/pilot for a series that never happened. Stepping into the iconic eye patch was none other than David Hasselhoff. Needless to say it was just as bad as it sounds, if not worse. Shockingly the script was by David S Goyer, who went on to make Blade and helped Christopher Nolan develop the Dark Knight trilogy.

Thankfully the powers that be stepped in and The Incredible Hulk aside all these previous attempts were failures. That said, there is huge comic value in watching The Hoff play Nick Fury bless him he does try so hard.