An Avengers movie starring the principals from various Marvel-related superhero films still seems highly unlikely -- but if it never comes to pass, it won't be because the studio failed to lay the groundwork for an eventual crossover.

Quite the contrary. As MTV News reports, Marvel is "aggressively cross-pollinating its superheroes," and has planned a pair of nifty cameos to prove it. First, fans will see Samuel L. Jackson appear in Iron Man May 2, playing S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Nick Fury; then, in June 13's The Incredible Hulk, who should be popping up but Iron Man himself -- Robert Downey Jr.?

William Hurt, busy promoting The Yellow Handkerchief, took a few moments to answer MTV's questions about Downey's Hulk cameo, and opened his comments with the following:

"I don't know how it'll work...I know it's weird [to work with a character from another movie], and to know it's a device. We did something; I don't know what that's going to be like [to watch]."

Hurt went on to stress the difference between The Incredible Hulk and its Ang Lee-directed predecessor, 2003's Hulk:

"Liv Tyler, I play her father, General Ross. There's a scene, and during that scene there are a number of things happening. [Hulk] has beaten Abomination, and then there's a crowd that gathers around, and they realize that he's beaten Abomination. That Abomination was the one who was killing for just the joy of killing; Hulk is not the one. It's the moment of turn when society's relationship with Hulk stops being so stupid...I want to see the relationship between Hulk and a world that realizes he's not the villain."

Calling himself a huge fan of the Hulk comics, and deeming Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier's version of the character "stylistically, a completely different film," Hurt also gave MTV his analysis of the script, written by Zak Penn and star Edward Norton:

"[It] has to do with the fact that [Banner's] conscience still exists in a body that is a manifestation of power and is greater than his own ability to control it -- and how he's learning that relationship. Because that's what's happening to us. That's the central metaphor for all of us, that we're learning these powers -- technological powers, whatever -- that we don't know if we have enough conscience to control in a wise way yet. And that's what he's doing."

Of course, anyone can make a movie sound good before audiences have seen it -- and Hurt is quick to admit that the film's fate is "so out of" his hands -- but still, it's awfully hard to read this stuff and not be at least a little excited to get a look at The Incredible Hulk, no?

Source: MTV Movies