The Marvel Cinematic Universe never truly closes the door on anybody, unless their name is Edward Norton or Terrence Howard, but it still came as a huge surprise when Tim Roth was announced to be returning as Emil Blonsky in Disney Plus series She-Hulk.
After all, The Incredible Hulk is regarded as the unwanted stepchild of the franchise, with a solitary throwaway line of dialogue in The Avengers about Bruce Banner breaking Harlem the only reference made to the movie for eight whole years, before William Hurt returned as Thaddeus Ross in Captain America: Civil War.
Roth has of course already dipped his toes back into the waters of the MCU, having provided the vocals for Abomination’s brief cameo appearance in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. In an interview with Uproxx, the actor opened up about his unexpected comeback, teasing that She-Hulk is going to be something special.
“Well, honestly, it totally surprised me. I went in to chat with Kevin Feige, and he said, ‘I’ve got an idea. Come in.’ Really? Really? Because the original thing that I did, when I did that first Incredible Hulk movie, was I just did it for my kids. And back then, no one knew what the MCU was going to be. And that was the second movie. In a way, it was pre-Iron Man. It hadn’t come out. And that was when they figured it out. Figured out, ‘Oh, that’s how you do it.’ And then they worked it out. Some of them better than others, whatever, but they worked it out. For me, Wolverine and very much Deadpool.
So, it was just for my kids when they were little. So I was amazed when they came back around and said, ‘How would you feel about…’ And I went, ‘Yeah. All right!’ And we just shot it, I guess in the summer last year or whatever. I think that they’re in post now doing it, so whenever. Bonus, I got to work with Mark Ruffalo. Awesome. Who I love. And I don’t know if I’m allowed to say. Oh, I can say that. But this extraordinary woman, Tatiana… who is She-Hulk… incredible, that woman. So that was a blast. It was insane.”
He isn’t wrong touting Tatiana Maslany as incredible, something every Orphan Black fan is fully aware of, but we’re hoping a teaser or full-length trailer for She-Hulk isn’t all that far away. Remember, the speculation touted Moon Knight as the first streaming series of 2022, and that’s since been confirmed by a full-length promo that revealed a March 30 debut, so our first proper look at Jennifer Walters’ live-action debut can’t be all that far away.