There’s still over 2 years before Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and The Hulk unite for The Avengers, but as Marvel are the masters of planning ahead they already have a draft of the script, and they’ve been sending it around to a few people. One of which includes Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada, who tweeted his excitement yesterday.

Definition of “goose bumps.” Pressing enter and watching a screenplay entitled “AVENGERS” come out of my printer.

It’s official, I have the greatest job in the world.

We can assume this is one of the many drafts that will be flying through Marvel printers over the next year and a half. Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand, Elektra) is the man Marvel gave scriptwriting duties to, although I’m sure the guy who ends up directing will want to do a few re-writes himself.

Here’s a reminder of the timeline:

Iron Man 2 – May 2010 (post-production)
Thor – May 2011 (currently filming)
The First Avenger: Captain America – July 2011 (pre-production, expected June shoot)
The Avengers – May 2012 (scripting)

As Iron Man, Thor and Captain America all have movies in either pre or post-production we always knew all three would eventually be appearing in The Avengers along with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury. However up until now we haven’t heard whether our green friend with anger issues would also be making an appearance. In the past producer Kevin Feige couldn’t answer the question of whether The Hulk would be in The Avengers, although he did say “there will be some members of the Hulk universe in the film”. Now in an interview with SFX Magazine (via SHH) he confirmed The Hulks involvement while discussing future Marvel films:

“My only concern is that when we launch a franchise–whichever character’s franchise that may be–it should stand on its own two feet… So by the time ‘The Avengers’ comes in 2012, it’s not just a team superhero movie with a bunch of characters with powers. It’s three people – four including the Hulk; five including Nick Fury – who you’ve seen before in other movies, coming together for the very first time.”

Catch that Hulk bit? Feige also said that he won’t rule out the possibility of a second Incredible Hulk film with Edward Norton. “That would be post-’Avengers,’ if it happened… I think there’s a chance. It’s certainly our intention to use the same actors from film to film where we can.”

Feige was asked it will be difficult to meld the fantasy of Thor with the high-tech science fiction in Iron Man and The Avengers. “No,” he said, “because we’re doing the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee/Walt Simonson/J. Michael Straczynski ‘Thor.’ We’re not doing the blow-the-dust-off-of-the-old-Norse-book-in-your-library ‘Thor.’ And in the ‘Thor’ of the Marvel Universe, there’s a race called the Asgardians. And we’re linked through this Tree of Life that we’re unaware of. It’s real science, but we don’t know about it yet. The ‘Thor’ movie is about teaching people that.”

Edward Norton said last year that having The Hulk as the villain in The Avengers “would be a fun way to go” and I agree, however I think there should be an even bigger villain that the team have to battle with, and they can only do that by getting the Hulk on their side. Zak Penn (X-Men: The Last Stand) is currently working on the script (lucky guy) and The Avengers will probably begin filming this time next year for it’s May 2012 release.

Even though Marvel aren’t ready to reveal anything just yet, there is a good chance that The Hulk will be the villain in The Avengers. They’ve been talking about the idea for a while and even The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier hinted at it last year when commenting on the films closing shot.

“…if you decide that he’s smiling, in control, then he’s a good guy, that’s ‘The Hulk 2,’” he continued. “If Hulk is a failure, then he looks up and smirks and that’s eventually the Hulk of the Avengers — the uncontrollable beast that they need to team up to stop.”

If the director knew of Marvel’s intentions then one would assume Edward Norton would be in on it too, and from this interview with MTV it seems he is.

“In the comics, there was always a tension between the rest of the superhero community and he was always this problem… They treated him as this problem,” said Norton.

In Toronto to promote his well-received film “Leaves of Grass” at the International Film Festival, Norton said he could definitely see the Hulk character becoming something that the rest of Marvel’s superheroes joined forces to battle. After all, Hulk’s never been shy about telling the world he’s “the strongest there is.”

“I think that’s a fun way to go with it,” said Norton.

If Norton likes the idea, which he does, then he could return as Bruce Banner in The Avengers. When The Incredible Hulk came out Norton and Marvel weren’t the best of friends as they had disagreements over the final cut and Norton didn’t receive credit for rewriting the script. At the time I am sure Norton wouldn’t have wanted to work with Marvel again, but time as passed and he may be up for it again. He’s probably contracted to return anyway.

Last month there was an rumor floating around that said Edward Norton would be appearing in Iron Man 2 as both Bruce Banner and The Hulk. If this were to be the case then it would be very cool indeed, and it would help pave the way for The Avengers, as Robert Downey Jr. appeared as Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk after the credits, which was then followed by Samuel L. Jackson turning up in Iron Man as Nick Fury. Well Norton recently addressed the rumor when asked about it by MTV:

“I heard that. I don’t know where that’s coming from,” Norton told MTV News. “I am not in ‘Iron Man 2′ to my knowledge.”

Of course he could be trying to keep the surprise alive by not revealing it, although it could be the case that he just…isn’t in it. But even if he was I wouldn’t want to know now anyway. If there are any cameos or surprise appearances by any future Avengers then we will probably hear about it next May when Iron Man 2 hits our screens (or if an actor reveals it beforehand).

UGO recently got the chance to interview Marvel Films President Kevin Feige (click here to read the full interview, highly recommended) and he revealed a lot of interesting info regarding the future Marvel movies (Thor, Captain America, The Avengers). Here are some of the best bits:

Update: UGO were not supposed to post it yet! I’ll post again when it’s allowed to go up.

In June The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier hinted that the last shot of the film could be interoperated in two ways:

“…if you decide that he’s smiling, in control, then he’s a good guy, that’s ‘The Hulk 2,’” he continued. “If Hulk is a failure, then he looks up and smirks and that’s eventually the Hulk of the Avengers — the uncontrollable beast that they need to team up to stop.”

The latest Hulk movie didn’t make as much money as Marvel probably hoped for, so the chances of a Hulk 2 are slim. That means we could be getting the second option, which is The Hulk being the villain in The Avengers.

However, it is not just Leterrier who thinks this. Iron Man writers (and potential writers of The Avengers) Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, spoke to MTV about their thoughts on the situation.

“I hope ‘The Avengers’ embraces that,” Fergus said of having the Hulk as misunderstood baddie. “You don’t want like 10 super-badass good guys fighting together. Where’s the fun in that? Let’s break it off a little. Friends or colleagues who become enemies is always an interesting thing because you know it’s based on love and friendship and that’s always the worst thing to have turn bad — is someone you actually care about and someone you actually believe in.”

Out of all the characters that will most likely appear in The Avengers movie (Thor, Iron Man, Captain America) The Hulk is the one most likely to go on a rampage against his ‘friends’. There is also the issue regarding Edward Norton, who didn’t have the best working relationship with Marvel while making The Incredible Hulk. If Norton didn’t make an appearance for whatever reason, they could easily just have The Hulk CGI’d all the way through.

Would anyone be up for Thor, Iron Man and Captain America vs. The Hulk? I know I would be!

Below we have a preview of an upcoming showdown between The Hulk and Wolverine from the animated DVD which will be out in January 2009.

HULK VS WOLVERINE- This dark, violent, smash and slash story was first told in issue 181 of THE INCREDIBLE HULK and the rematches have continued to thrill comic fans ever since. Now Marvel and Lionsgate takes the best of those famous comic book battles and merges them into one heart pounding 33-minute story.

We can also expect a Hulk vs Thor showdown.

HULK VS THOR – It’s gods versus monsters in this epic 45 minute movie! Never have we explored the explosive power of the Hulk like we have in this new film, every major character from the Marvel Thor universe is thrust into battle with this Green Goliath as he brings a new Ragnarok down upon the realm of gods.

A new advertisement for EAS’ Myoplex has started appearing in magazines, to co-inside with the release of The Incredible Hulk in June. I think it is great marketing, as The Hulk is actually rather muscular, so much in fact, he can lift entire cars while smiling for the camera.

Check it out below!

Edward Norton has written a 257-word statement (approved by Universal and Marvel) and sent it to EW. Apparently Entertainment Weekly have been trying to get an interview with Norton for some time, but due to his problems with Marvel, he has decided not to do any promotional work up until this point. The problem seems to be that during post-production Marvel wanted a more commercial film, keeping it under two hours with lots of action and effects. However, Norton and director Louis Leterrier wanted the keep the film at 2 hours 15 minutes. As Marvel are the ones financing the movie, what they say goes. This annoyed Edward Norton, so he has decided to not help promote his own movie…he wrote the damn thing!

Norton’s Statement:

“Like so many people I’ve loved the story of The Hulk since I was a kid, so it was thrilling when Marvel asked me to write and help produce an altogether new screen incarnation, as well as play Bruce Banner. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and always loved the mythic dimension and contemporary themes in the stories, and I’m proud of the script I wrote. In every phase of production, including the editing, working with Louis Leterrier has been wonderful…I’ve never had a better partner, and the collaboration with all the rest of the creative team has been terrific. Every good movie gets forged through collaboration, and different ideas among people who are all committed and respect the validity of each other’s opinions is the heart of filmmaking. Regrettably, our healthy process, which is and should be a private matter, was misrepresented publicly as a ‘dispute,’ seized on by people looking for a good story, and has been distorted to such a degree that it risks distracting from the film itself, which Marvel, Universal and I refuse to let happen. It has always been my firm conviction that films should speak for themselves and that knowing too much about how they are made diminishes the magic of watching them. All of us believe The Incredible Hulk will excite old fans and create new ones and be a huge hit…our focus has always been to deliver the Hulk that people have been waiting for and keep the worldwide love affair with the big green guy going strong.”

The movie has been getting negative buzz recently, with the backstage issues overshadowing the cool trailer we got last month. If Norton continues his anti-Marvel campaign it will hurt The Incredible Hulk. It is the equivalent of Hugh Jackman not promoting the X-Men movies, Tobey Maguire deciding not to market Spiderman and Johnny Depp boycotting interviews for the Pirate movies.

I just hope Liv Tyler can handle jet lag well because it looks like she may be getting Norton’s share of the promotion!

The official poster for The Incredible Hulk was released just yesterday, however some people, like those over at io9, were having deja vu, flashbacks and geek spasms.

The poster is – presumably intentionally – a recreation of one of the most famous Marvel covers ever: Amazing Spider-Man #50 (If it looks familiar to those of you who’ve never seen the cover before, it was also recreated in the movie Spider-Man 2). Why try and recreate a Spider-Man cover for a Hulk movie poster? Who knows – Maybe Ed Norton wanted the world to know that he really is a geek, after all…

Although they are rather similar, if not identical, I would like to point out that Spiderman is red, whereas The Hulk is in fact green.

(Ah, who am I kidding…it’s a total rip-off!)