This Is How Tim Roth Really Feels About Returning To The MCU After More Than A Decade
It takes an immense amount of talent to not only be memorable in a movie but also be arguably the best part of said movie when you spend almost the entirety of its runtime bleeding from your stomach. This was how Tim Roth endeared himself to the American audience. He had a budding career in the U.K. throughout the '80s before landing the role of Mr. Orange in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 directorial debut, "Reservoir Dogs."
Following the success of that film, Roth worked consistently for 16 years until he landed the role of Emil Blonsky, aka Abomination, in the 2008 MCU film "The Incredible Hulk" (via IMDb). At the time the film was released (just one month after "Iron Man," FYI), the MCU had yet to come together as a cinematic entity. Because of this, while "The Incredible Hulk" remains canon, many of the characters and themes were left out as the MCU began moving forward. Bruce Banner actor Edward Norton was eventually replaced by Mark Ruffalo, and Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) and Samuel Sterns (Time Blake Nelson) were never heard from again. It seemed only General "Thunderbolt" Ross (William Hurt) was recruited to appear in later movies.
However, fans of the MCU continued to wonder about the villains from this 2008 film. Would they ever see Blonsky or Sterns on screen again? Much to their delight, they got their wish when Abomination appeared alongside Wong in 2021's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings." Now, Roth is revealing how it felt when asked to reprise the role after over a decade of waiting.
Roth's feelings on his return echoes the fandom's
No matter how you feel about "The Incredible Hulk," Tim Roth was definitely a bright spot as Abomination. His appearance in "Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" solidified that Marvel took the best things from Hulk's original outing and left the rest in the past. Twitter blew up with reactions from the trailer when Abomination appeared to surprise everyone. @King_slayer_13 tweeted, "Abomination is Back!!" It sparked even more theories for users like @wandasolsen, who posted pics of Abomination alongside Yelena Belova, Ghost, and Zemo with the tweet, "THE THUNDERBOLTS ARE COMING."
As excited as the fans are for Abomination's return, Roth had his own feelings about it. Recently, he sat down with UPROXX to discuss his movie "Sundown." During the interview, he shared his reaction to returning to the role of the "Incredible Hulk" villain over a decade later. "Well, honestly, it totally surprised me. I went in to chat with Kevin Feige, and he said, 'I've got an idea. Come in.'" Roth recalled his shock ("Really? Really?") and went on to say, "Because the original thing that I did, when I did that first 'Incredible Hulk' movie, was I just did it for my kids." When Feige reached out to Roth to ask him to come back, the actor said he had a straightforward answer: "Yeah. All right!"
Now that Roth is back in the MCU as Abomination, is it possible that Tim Blake Nelson is next to continue the story of Samuel Sterns? His ending was left open similarly to Blonsky's, and with the door open to more "Hulk" franchise characters through the forthcoming Disney+ show "She-Hulk," it may be only a matter of time.