Hulk: Tim Blake Nelson Talks Original Plans for The Leader

Tim Blake Nelson may be killing it as Looking Glass in HBO's Watchmen today, but he was originally in line to play Hulk villain The Leader in the sequel to The Incredible Hulk. As it turns out, he was supposed to appear in 3 Marvel films, but those plans didn't end up happening.

Talking to GQ, Nelson talks about the original plan for Samuel Sterns a.k.a. The Leader. He says, "I got called down to the lobby of the Mercer Hotel to meet Louis Leterrier and Gale Ann Hurd, who's producer. They said, ‘We want you to play this science character [Samuel Sterns],' and I'd read the script. He was a wildly eccentric guy, mainly in the second half of the movie."

"I thought that was interesting because I haven't been in one of these movies before," Nelson continued. "And they said, ‘Well, you're going to become the villain in the next movie, so you'll basically be signing up for three movies and you're going to be this character called The Leader.' And I thought ‘Oh my God, this is fantastic.'"

What's interesting is that Nelson was actually cast even before they found someone to play Bruce Banner, and Nelson also confirms that Mark Ruffalo was in the running to play the part before Edward Norton was cast.

I don't really know what to expect with Nelson's The Leader, but seeing as he's doing such great work with Watchmen, I expect that his villain could be interesting.

Rumor has it that Marvel is actually looking to go back and explore old villains, and it's said that Nelson's Leader is being eyed for a Thunderbolts film or the She-Hulk series. Nothing official has been announced yet, but I'd be happy to see him come back in the MCU one way or another.

For now, you can catch Nelson in Watchmen, Sunday nights on HBO.

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