William Hurt as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt '' Ross: Betty 's arrogant father, who has dedicated himself to capturing the Hulk. Leterrier cast Hurt because "Ross is more physical, more explosive in this movie, and no actor goes from zero to 100 as well as William. '' He compared Ross to Captain Ahab. The Hulk is Hurt 's favorite superhero, and his son is also a big fan of the character. Hurt found production very different from the typical "pure anxiety '' of a studio film, finding it more akin to an independent film. He described Ross as "humiliated by Hulk 's conscience: he actually sees and recognizes that it 's more developed than his own, even though he 's a patriot and a warrior for his country. He 's sacrificed (much) for that purpose, but at the expense at times of his humanity -- which he occasionally recovers. '' In June 2015, when reflecting on how his reprisal in Captain America: Civil War was different from this film, Hurt said, "What I created (for The Incredible Hulk) was a Ross who was right out of the graphic novel type of thing, where he was as much of a cartoon, in a way, as the monsters were. His ego was just as big and his problems were just as big. I really did do that consciously. I created a General Ross before which created a verisimilitude for the monsters, by making him a human monster. I worked really hard on the makeup and the exaggerated behavior and things like that and a controlled psychosis. '' Sam Elliott had expressed interest in reprising the role from the first Hulk film.
who plays the general in the incredible hulk
William Hurt