In the year of Iron Man and The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk got somewhat overlooked – which is fortunate because it was a bag of bums.

Quite how much Edward Norton had to do with The Incredible Hulk being a bag of bums is unknown – hacked off at Marvel’s refusal to listen to him, he gathered up his blanket and flounced off in a strop right before the movie came out.

And that could be why Edward Norton doesn’t know if he’s got a future with The Incredible Hulk or not – if he’ll be in a sequel or if there’ll even be a sequel at all. Hopefully there’s a logical reason for this – like because the Marvel heads are too busy trying to track down and destroy every copy of The Incredible Hulk while personally visiting everyone who paid to see it to give them a refund and offer them a consolatory kick in the nuts.

2008 was a big summer for superhero movies, whether in The Dark Knight‘s labyrinthine pitch-black plot or the freewheeling pizazz of Iron Man. But there was a third superhero movie this summer – the deformed son that the other superhero movies kept locked in the attic. The Incredible Hulk.

Conceived as a high-octane rollercoaster joyride compared to Ang Lee‘s ponderous 2003 Hulk movie, The Incredible Hulk ended up taking less money than its predecessor while simultaneously giving off the vague impression that it was a direct-to-DVD spin-off directed by a toddler smashed off his face on E-numbers that had somehow wound up with a theatrical release, only not as good as we’ve just made it sound.

However, The Incredible Hulk has still managed to take close to $245 million worldwide, so a sequel looks fairly inevitable. But whether or not it’ll star Edward Norton is another matter entirely.

That’s because, back before The Incredible Hulk was released, Edward Norton threw a gigantic tantrum about the final edit and refused to take part in any promotion of the movie. Reports at the time suggested that Marvel wanted to make the movie shorter and punchier, while Norton was keen to include a 45-minute midsection where the Hulk embarked upon a contemplative rites of passage journey through post-imperial Calcutta or something.

But because of this, Edward Norton hasn’t got a bloody clue about what’s going on with any Incredible Hulk sequels, or even if he’ll star in them if they do get made, as he told MTV:

“The minds of Marvel are sometimes opaque. I won’t say [they're] obtuse, but I don’t have any idea what they want to do.”

Face it Norton. You blew your big chance. You could have kept your mouth shut and got another two guaranteed sequels out of The Incredible Hulk but, no, you had to go and get all precious about it. Now you’re going to be known as the man who was in that film about the magician with the gay voice and nothing more.

Now, Marvel, forget about Edward Norton. What you want to do is make a sequel to The Incredible Hulk, but this time hire an actor so preposterously dumb that he’ll go along with whatever cack-brained scheme you happen to spunk up, no matter how hacky and pointless it is. You want someone who’s not only mindblowingly stupid, but cheap as well. That way you can afford more explosions.

We’ve checked with Hayden Christensen‘s agent. He’s free next week. Thank us later.