Joss Whedon has revealed that he and Mark Ruffalo did lots of work developing the character of the The Hulk for The Avengers.
Whedon, who is in the director's chair for the movie, wanted a 'fresh' feel to the character when he returns to the big screen.
It will be the first time that we see Ruffalo take on the character as he joins an all star cast of Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans & Chris Hemsworth - who will be reprising the role of Iron Man, Captain American and Thor.
Speaking to Movie Talk the filmmaker said: "He and I did the most character work of anyone, because we really were starting fresh, but we were starting with something that had been embodied several times.
"And both of us agreed upfront that the template for who we wanted this guy to be in his life was Bill Bixby, the TV [show character] who was busy helping other people. That was more interesting to us than the Banner in the first two movies who was always fixated on curing himself.
"We spent a lot of time talking about what makes us Hulk out, the nature of anger, how it feels.
"We even fought some. I mean literally we actually got some pads out and did some tussling."
The Avengers promises to be one of the biggest movies of 2012 as Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johanson, Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Renner are all also on the cast list.
2011 has been a great year for Marvel movies with X-Men: First Class, Thor and Captain American: The First Avenger enjoying box office success.
The Avengers is released 27th April.
Tagged in Joss Whedon