Marvel Studios put a lot of interest in expanding the cinematic universe to television, especially due to Disney’s commitment to streaming and as an incentive to attract subscribers. It was a good way to take advantage of characters like Hulka, whose comics never had the desired popularity. And, despite having served to produce one of the most original Marvel series, fans should consider She-Hulk: Lawyer Hulka canceled.
They are not the speculations of yours truly but of Tatiana Maslany, the actress who gave life to Jennifer Walters, the Hulk’s cousin who has the same superlative powers as Bruce Banner but without losing her intellect by transforming into a green monster. As she reported during an interview, no one expects a second season because they went over budget and, when considering the possibility of producing more episodes, “Disney was like ‘no, thanks’.”
She-Hulk: Lawyer She-Hulk was a risky project. It required an investment of approximately $225 million to produce nine half-hour episodes. This represents a price per episode of 25 million for a series that, in reality, was a legal comedy with a protagonist made with CGI and action scenes full of visual effects to liven up the jokes.
This was the trick: taking advantage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to exploit its most absurd comic vision. Jennifer Walters’ work allowed her as a lawyer in cases related to superheroes and supervillains and, in addition, she had good comic-level material. Created by Stan Lee and John Buscema in 1980, it had been claimed by John Byrne in 1989 and Dan Slott offered one of the funniest stages from 2004 onwards, emphasizing her crazy nature as a lawyer.
Jessica Gao’s vision, in fact, drank from the spirit of Slott’s stage. And, with cameos such as Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Charlie Cox as Daredevil and Tim Roth as Abomination, it offered a light-hearted, irregular season but with an ingenious final episode that destroyed any viewer’s expectations and gave a twist to the concept of breaking the fourth wall
How would Gao have continued if he could write more episodes? According to Maslany, we will surely never know.
