With ABC doing their upfront presentations today, some chatter did move towards the TV series adaptation of Hulk that has been bandied about for a bit. The series wasn’t expected for this fall since no pilot was put into production this spring, but ABC entertainment president Paul Lee confirmed that the project is most assuredly not dead, a smart move considering the character largely stole the show when it comes to the box office powerhouse The Avengers.
At the presentation, Lee said that he’d like “see some Marvel projects come to television.”
“Hulk is in development,” he confirmed. “It wasn’t going to be ready this season but we hope it’s going to be ready for next season.”
The property is a natural as Disney is looking to extend its Avengers brand into a year long property across multiple venues and owns ABC. Oscar nominee Guillermo del Toro is associated with developing the project and has been for the past year. Discussion about how it would be a natural fit came up with Lee talking about how they do want to bring in some superhero properties, things which have typically not fared well on TV due to the often poor adaptations that eject most of what people like about the comics.
“We’re immensely proud to be a company with The Avengers,” he said. “We’re going to continue to develop aggressively.”
Story details for the planned series have been minimal to non-existent, but what has been heard but not full confirmed is that the series would focus on a twenty-something Bruce Banner early on after becoming the Hulk as he tries to avoid getting caught. With the growing acceptance of the Marvel Universe as a whole in the film world, it’s expected that this will tie into it (being all owned by the same conglomerate) and they’d be able to use certain elements, such as SHIELD, to provide context.