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Marvel star we haven't seen since 'Incredible Hulk' returning in 'Captain America: New World Order’
A familiar face from the MCU’s early days is making a Phase 5 comeback.
Some things change, and some things just take a while to stay the same. With 15 years separating her first and only MCU appearance in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk (produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Universal Pictures), Liv Tyler is reportedly heading back to the Marvel movie-verse to once again play Betty Ross in the upcoming Phase 5 Captain America movie.
Via Entertainment Weekly, Tyler is set to reprise her role as the daughter of president Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, played for the first time in Captain America: New World Order by Harrison Ford, who stepped into the role following the late William Hurt’s passing last year. Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) so far hasn’t been teased as a character in the movie, but should he also appear, it’ll be the second Hulk Tyler’s come across in the MCU: In Marvel’s 2008 film — the second MCU movie after Iron Man — the green guy was first played by Edward Norton.
RELATED: The 'She-Hulk' finale considered going full meta and bringing back Edward Norton as Bruce Banner
Julius Onah (The Cloverfield Paradox) is directing his first-ever Marvel movie with New World Order, which will see Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), the hero formerly known as Falcon, officially take on his first big Captain America movie mission after inheriting Cap’s Vibranium shield from its former owner (Chris Evans) at the end of Avengers: Endgame (2019) and putting it through its paces in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021).
There’s no word on how Tyler’s MCU reemergence will factor into New World Order, but as the president’s daughter, she’ll definitely be somewhere near the heart of the action. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige teased to EW that President Ross and Sam have a shared “history” that fans can expect to see explored further in the movie.
“There's a dynamic between President Ross and Sam Wilson,” Feige explained. “They have a history together, but in this film, we'll be seeing the dynamic between Captain America and the president of the United States in a way that is just incredible.”
Tyler, 45, isn’t the only Hulk veteran to turn up back in the MCU after an extended hiatus. Tim Roth returned as Emil Blonsky aka Abomination last year in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law at Disney+, while Tim Blake Nelson is expected to appear once more as Samuel Sterns aka the Leader alongside Tyler when Captain America: New World Order makes its big premiere on May 3 of next year.
Though she might be an infrequent face these days on the big screen, Tyler has a pretty sweet track record of showing up in memorable roles. After playing Arwen Undómiel in Peter Jackson’s early-2000s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, she appeared the same year as The Incredible Hulk in horror thriller The Strangers (2008), and starred opposite Brad Pitt as the wife of Pitt’s Martian astronaut in the 2019 space epic Ad Astra. She also held a key Season 1 role as paramedic Michelle Blake in Fox’s 9-1-1: Lone Star (2020).
With the MCU bringing back so many character callouts to its earliest Hulk days, there’s no time like the present to blast back to the past for an encore trip through Edward Norton’s brief time as Bruce Banner.
Need to refresh your memory in the meantime? Whether it’s digital on-demand or good old-fashioned Blu-ray, snag a copy of The Incredible Hulk in all its smashing 2008 glory here.
