It’s been quite a week for followers of Marvel’s planned The Avengers movie, which remains in place for a summer 2012 release. Earlier this week, Marvel released a pretty terse statement announcing that Edward Norton wouldn’t be appearing as Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk in the film, and that was swiftly followed by a rumour that Joaquin Phoenix had been approached to take part.

Then, Edward Norton released his own, far more dignified statement, and the end result is that The Avengers movie still needs a new actor to play The Hulk. Marvel’s plan, it’s being widely reported, is to have its choice in place in time for a Comic-Con announcement, which means we’re a week or two from finding out who we shouldn’t be making angry.

It’s stayed mum on the Joaquin Phoenix rumour thus far, but one or two new, more interesting names have been thrown into the mix. For on top of Phoenix, the likes of the mighty Nathan Fillion has been suggested, along with Adrien Brody (fresh off Predators). And the Los Angeles Times has slipped in a name that sent our geekbumps off the scale: Mr David Tennant.

The L.A. Times does describe all this speculation as “rumour roulette”, but that’s the first time we’ve heard Tennant’s name associated with the role. And you’d hardly describe the L.A. Times as a frivolous source for such stories. It's still a rumour, but a fairly solid one, we'd suggest.

Tennant sounds like great casting to us, but we’ll find out for certain who Marvel’s “name” replacement for Edward Norton will be in the next week or two with a bit of luck…

L.A. Times (scroll right down to the bottom)

UPDATE: Deadline has now thrown another name into the mix, reporting that Mark Ruffalo is in "late-stage talks" about playing The Incredible Hulk in The Avengers. That story is here.