Hulk TV comeback pondered by ABC, Marvel

The gamma radiation-born superhero the Incredible Hulk could soon be headed back to TV screens, with Marvel Entertainment and ABC reportedly considering a revival of the character.

A new live-action television series revolving around the reserved physicist Bruce Banner and his green, raging, bulked-up alter ego the Hulk is a priority amid several ideas Marvel's new television unit has pitched to ABC, according to reports in Hollywood trade media on Thursday.

Disney, ABC's parent company, acquired Marvel Entertainment in 2009, and this June the company launched Marvel Television to create small screen adaptations based on its vast archive of comic characters.

According to the Hollywood Reporter and industry websites, the studios are now looking for a showrunner to tackle the Hulk project.

Introduced in Marvel comics in the early 1960s, The Incredible Hulk debuted as a TV series in 1978, with Bill Bixby starring as Banner and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno appearing in scenes as the Hulk. The series ran until 1982 and continued periodically with made-for-TV movies, until Bixby's death in 1993. The character was also featured in an animated TV series.

More recently, two Hulk feature-length movies were released (2003's Hulk directed by Ang Lee, starring Eric Bana, and 2008's The Incredible Hulk directed by Louis Leterrier, starring Edward Norton). Mark Ruffalo is set to take on the superhero's mantle in the forthcoming movie The Avengers.

The Hulk talk comes shortly after news that another comic book hero — DC's Wonder Woman — is also readying for a return to TV.

Earlier this month, trade press reported that The Practice and Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley has signed on to write and produce a contemporary take on Wonder Woman's story for Warner Bros. and DC. It would be the first live-action TV incarnation of the character since the late '70s show The New Adventures of Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter.