SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details about the season one finaleShe Hulk is an Attorney at Law on Disney+.
She-Hulk: Attorney At LawIt wrapped its first season with an episode this week Could Marvel could decide to end the series with double, NotTo continue with its first TV comedy of half an hour. But why wouldn’t they? We will be watching to see what happens between She-Hulk und Daredevil.
Jessica Gao, executive producers, discusses the meta ending with her boss Kevin Feige as a robot and why she chose to avoid a traditional Marvel ending for Tatiana Maslany’s starrer.
DEADLINE The season finale followed She-Hulk as she walked into the writers room of … She-Hulk. Was that you?
JESSICA GAO:I was the background. I was dragged kicking and screaming into that cameo, ’cause I did not originally plan to be in it. That’s why we cast an actor to play writer Jessica. The night before, however, we realized that we needed a background actor. And because it was during the height of Covid, there wouldn’t have been enough time to test a background person to have them shoot the next day. So I took over.
DEADLINE: Is this the ending you had in mind from the beginning? Marvel boss Kevin Feige is the real deal.
GAO: Oh, no. Not at all. It was quite a journey to get there. There must have been 20 versions of my finale. I thought I had written the final version, but I was wrong. “I got to have my fun. We’ve got to do something different. I have to do the Marvel ending.”Marvel does things in a particular way. Like, that’s really what I thought. This is what I thought, and nobody was telling me that. I tried to live up and created many versions of the typical Marvel ending. None of them felt right. Kevin, the human Kevin, said it all: “There’s no reason to do that. Why try to force this when it’s not what it’s supposed to be? This is not a Marvel movie, so why are you trying to make a Marvel movie ending when that’s not what it is? This show has been completely different from the beginning. This show was completely different than anything we’ve ever done.”It was so liberating to have him give me permission and to encourage me to do something new. That’s why it’s so great working with human Kevin, because he is open to things like that.
DEADLINE:What would you consider a typical Marvel ending?
GAO: The reveal of a villainous, big-hearted character; the conspiracy is revealed; then, a massive, action-packed fight with this bad guy in which the hero defeats the bad guy.
DEADLINE: The whole thing with robot Kevin was pretty fun but … it’s all rooted in reality, right? Kevin has to approve every bit of this.
GAO: Absolutely. Kevin signs off on every word.
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DEADLINE:Kevin, the robot you heard speak In the final, “We’ve been historically light in that department,”This is an allusion to the lack romance in Marvel-verse. When you were first launched She-HulkDid you know that you wanted to make her happy in the love department.
GAO: Oh definitely. This was supposed to be a well-rounded portrait of a woman’s life, and that would include a love life and a sex life. Because this is a single woman in her 20s, we knew that all of it was important. We wanted to capture her whole experience as a young woman.
DEADLINE:She-Hulk’s comics show that she has many lovers, such as Wyatt Wingfoot or Starfox. Daredevil is a good choice.
GAO:We couldn’t be more different. Daredevil is a friend of She-Hulk in comics. This is how I would put it. He is prolifically asleep.We were ecstatic when we found out that Daredevil was available to us. “Well, of course they have to hook up.” Like, he’s the perfect partner for her. He is someone who understands her. And he’s hot and he’s incredibly charming. This is the rare person who understands the exact situation that she’s in, how to balance being a lawyer by day and then a superhero outside of work. It was a great chemistry between Charlie Cox, Tatiana and Tatiana.
DEADLINE: So I’m assuming this relationship could flourish if we see a second season?
GAO: Yeah. If these two very busy people who have a lot going on in their lives wanna make it work, I’m sure they could find a way to make it work.
DEADLINE: This season, you broke quite a few of the fourth walls. What lessons did you take away from this experience? Will you be making any changes in the second season?
GAO:I love breaking fourth walls. It’s always so fun for me. As a viewer, it was so much fun. It was almost too heavy in fourth-wall breaks that the first scripts had. I was disappointed that I was not given enough notes to stop the fourth wall breaking. It taught me that balance is key. If there are too many, then there’s not enough room for the story and for everything to actually unfold on its own.
DEADLINE:I loved the way Jennifer began to be insecure about She-Hulk’s positive attention. Is that something you’re gonna farm in the future?
GAO:Her origin story is the focus of her entire first season. In the pilot episode, it’s her physical origin, but for the entirety of the seasonal arc, it’s really about her emotionally and mentally becoming She-Hulk. It’s her accepting who she is, how she hope it fits into her life and how to have both Jen and She-Hulk co-exist in a way that she can accept. At the end of the season, she reaches the point where she’s fully accepted She-Hulk and she knows how to fit her in with Jennifer Walters now. So moving forward, she’s going to be so much more confident. She’s had to deal with the growing pains that come with being this other person. She is now able to fly.
DEADLINE:The finale could also be used as a series ending. You did it this way?
GAO: Always. I’ve been writing for TV for a very long time, and you can never, ever guarantee that you’re gonna get another season, especially for a Season 1 show. A writer who is working on a first season show should tell a satisfying, complete story. If it does end in that fashion, it will feel like you have at least told one story, but left enough to allow for six more.