She-Hulk is going to keep it in the family by introducing MCU audiences to Jennifer Walters, cousin to Bruce Banner who just happens to transform into a Jade Giant herself after she’s exposed to Banner’s blood during a car crash (a change from her origins in the comics). As the trailers have promised, Mark Ruffalo is due to have a key role in the incoming Disney Plus series as Bruce trains up his lawyer cuz in the ways of being a Hulk.
Having Banner back, in his Professor Hulk form no less, is a big plus for fans, and sure enough director Kat Coiro is promising that Bruce and Jen’s dynamic is one of the best parts of the show. According to comments Coiro made to Entertainment Weekly, there’s a lot of fun that will be had from Bruce attempting to be the Obi-Wan Kenobi to Jen’s Luke Skywalker only for her to ditch much of his advice and find her own way to handle her transformation. As Coiro said:
“Bruce and Jennifer’s dynamic is is honestly one of my favorite parts of the series because he comes into it having gone through this very personal journey, and he has a predisposed idea that her experience is going to be exactly the same as his and that he has a lot to teach her. And very quickly, it becomes clear that her experience is going to be very different, both physically, literally, and mentally because of how they have operated differently in the world as men and women. I love watching Bruce get completely thrown off his game of thinking that he’s the teacher and realizing that very quickly, she has things to teach him.”
As for the actors, Coiro went on to stress that Ruffalo and Maslany’s off-screen dynamic was an ironic mirror of their on-screen one, as the Avengers: Endgame star quickly found he didn’t need to guide the Orphan Black actress much once filming began.
“And it was fun watching Mark [Ruffalo] and Tatiana, because he’s been playing his Hulk for so many years and she was very new to the Hulk, and yet, as soon as they started working together, Mark was like, ‘Wow, she’s amazing and she’s bringing all these new levels to the Hulk.’ The actors’ experience really mirrored the characters’ experience in a really fun way.”
Coiro’s remarks about how Jen’s experience as a Hulk will differ from Bruce’s because she’s a woman echoes what showrunner Jessica Gao has said before about how She-Hulk, while it’s being pitched as a wacky legal-flavored comedy, will still have some pretty meaty themes. Expect Jen to have to deal with a world that’s obsessed with her Hulk body in a way that Bruce has never faced.
Co-starring the likes of Tim Roth, Benedict Wong, Jameela Jamil, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Josh Segarra and a certain “crowd favorite,” Charlie Cox, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law smashes onto streaming once it makes its Disney Plus debut on Wednesday, Aug. 17.