I'd been trying to get my dirty, little fingers into Marvel for years,
so I go in, I meet with Brad Winderbaum for the Black Widow movie.
I loved She-Hulk so much even then, that I put her into my Black Widow pitch.
At one point, he even said like,
"Kinda feels like you're pitching a She-Hulk story with Black Widow in it,"
and I said, "Guilty."
So, when I didn't get that job, my parting shot to them was,
"If you ever do do She-Hulk, you better call me, because if you don't,
"I'll burn this building to the ground."
Kevin makes the announcement that they're gonna do She-Hulk
as a series and I'm furious,
because I look at my phone, I'm like,
"I don't have any missed calls from Marvel Studios.
"I told them what would happen."
And my fiancé was, of course, like, "Chill out, dude."
And then literally the next day, I got a call,
you know, from Marvel to see if I wanted to pitch on She-Hulk
and of course I was like,
"I think I heard something about an announcement?"
I was actually a huge fan of She-Hulk as a kid.
She was, kind of, in my mind,
the only really badass female superhero who had her own comic books.
WENDY JACOBSON: In her actual pitch to get hired,
Kat had a picture of her
as a "scrawny teenager,"
you know, reading the She-Hulk comic.
She used to go every week and get it,
and it was this exciting, formative thing.
COIRO: It was right as everything was going down with the pandemic,
I had my first meeting, and it was, kind of, you know, horrible for the world,
but great timing, because my husband, Rhys,
actually owned all the old comics,
and we went to his mom's basement and pulled them up,
and I got to, kind of, go back through all these comics that I'd loved,
and really remember what was so exciting about She-Hulk.
And what was so exciting about her is that she broke the fourth wall,
and she was so irreverent, and she was so big, and strong, and bold,
and so many of the things that she did are, kind of, groundbreaking.
ANU VALIA: What I love about Jen's story is, she's this young woman
who spent so much time working,
and hasn't really had the chance to grow her life romantically,
to spend time with her friends,
to just, like, live a fun life as a young adult woman, and then,
this huge thing happens to her and it's like,
how do you, sort of, navigate just your everyday life,
trying to be good at your job, trying to be a good friend,
trying to figure out, sort of, what you want as a person,
and then as a Hulk.
What are you talking about? I'm not gonna be a superhero.
(CHUCKLES)
BANNER: What else ya gonna do as a Hulk?
Return to my career.
What I love most about Jen, Jen/She-Hulk
is just her contradiction.
She's just so completely fixated on work, and yet she also has this huge heart,
and just wants to fall in love, and all of that.
And also that she, in one sense,
loves being She-Hulk and at the same time resents it.
She's kind of directly in that contradiction.
We just started a superhuman law division,
and I want you, well, the She-Hulk, to be the face of it.
Oh.
JACOBSON: There was conversation even in the methodology
about how we shoot this.
At one point, we talked about,
are we gonna go old school and do it like Bill Bixby,
and, and Lou Ferrigno, and find
you know, a great actor who's of a certain height,
and then have a bodybuilder playing She-Hulk.
There were so many different discussions,
we went down so many different paths, and at the end of the day,
it really landed with, "We need to find the best actor for this job
"who's gonna bring the most to the role," because ultimately,
she's going to be a six-foot-seven, green computer-generated image,
and we all need to feel like this is a real human being,
and buy what she's selling.
These dodos never had to deal with this on the first day of the job.
I hope they die in a fire.
Not really, they can die of old age, but like, tomorrow.
GAO: I always thought of this as a comedic role,
and so I always thought like we need a very comedic actress.
You know, has to be a very, very comedic person,
who has a ton of comedy experience,
but when we cast Tatiana, it was like,
she made me change the way I think about this character.
Like, she turned Jennifer Walters and She-Hulk into a real person.
I'm a Hulk. Why don't I just smash our way in?
Because they have weapons, Jennifer.
(WHISPERS) Yeah, well, good thing She-Hulk is indestructible, Matthew.
Not only am I, like, stepping into, like, being a superhero for the first time,
but I'm also, like getting to do a flat-out comedy,
which is just so exciting.
And like with, you know, writing like Jessica's,
it's just so easy, and all of our day players are like amazing,
all of the guest stars, like, it's just an incredible group of people,
so it just feels really, for the first time, like, total play, um,
which I've experienced in little doses,
but this feels like totally a different world.
Who are the two least likely people to play Hulk?
She's actually hysterical.
-Well, I disagree, but I'm having fun. -You're really funny.
-You can do comedy really well. -This guy's the fun one.
I... I have never had the chance.
I know, isn't it... Don't you feel like, as a serious actor,
you get stuck doing serious things,
-when all you really wanna do is comedy? -MASLANY: Yeah.
-What? -Don't make me angry.
You wouldn't like as me...
(BOTH LAUGHING)
SHANNON JUSTISON: For She-Hulk we were really keen
on it being Tatiana's performance.
Our whole goal was to not keyframe her face.
She's amazing. You want all that performance.
And, so, she was wearing of course the full mo-cap suit
which gets her physical, her body performance,
and then she had what we call an HMC or a head mounted camera on.
And it's recording all those little dots
and then those dots are then piped into a system that can then read that in
and translate that into facial motion.
MAN: Scrunch your face left. Scrunch your face right.
Blink. Blink right. Blink left. Good.
JUSTISON: So the gold standard for motion capture
is what we call optical capture,
that's what you would probably recognize as having the little like,
what looks like ping-pong balls,
what we call retro reflective markers all over at certain points on the body.
It also requires about 50 cameras set up in a volume,
and those all have to be perfectly set up and then calibrated,
obviously there's a big up time with hanging all those cameras,
and then any scenes where there's a lot of crowds,
she's sitting at her desk, suddenly her legs are blocked,
we can't see her pelvis anymore.
That's when we would use an inertial suit.
Inertial suits, they rely on little sensors that are built into the suit,
that also is just on a signal.
So there's a little station that we set up and it talks to all of the sensors.
The only tricky thing with that,
it's not as precise as the optical capture.
So the inertial tended to go with us on location,
for quick setup and tear down,
optical any time we were in a big set, we were gonna be there for a few days.
We did everything. We did mo-cap,
we did facial capture,
we did Tatiana doing all the takes
as well as doing a stunt double doing the takes as well as
animation trying to track the motion capture.
Tatiana has her frame,
and it's quite different to what She-Hulk is,
so Tatiana doing this is one thing.
When you have She-Hulk, it feels this!
And people don't talk this way! But that's how it translates
when you are the height that she is and the size that she is.
So we had to do a lot of, maybe, taming
the straight translation from what Tatiana did to She-Hulk,
so that it would feel within character,
and it didn't become a caricature.
JUSTISON: Someone like She-Hulk is very time intensive.
She also has additional complications in that she's got long-flowing hair,
so she's automatically more difficult than other characters.
She also has 25 costumes, which is unheard of.
We only started from a core from the wardrobe department
and then we would kinda take it from there.
For the show, we also had an actress, Malia, who was 6'7,
and so she would wear a practical version of the costume
and that was really valuable reference for us in visual effects.
That was one of the funnest things about this character,
was getting to do both versions of these costumes,
what they look like on Tatiana, as Jen, and then as She-Hulk.
We actually had a body form made,
based off of what She-Hulk's measurements would have been,
and we had that as a reference
when we were making those costumes, so that we could see,
like the aftermath of the suit after she has her transformation.
We studied a lot of different transformations on camera.
There's so many different ways to do it.
And the truth is, with Jennifer turning into She-Hulk,
it's meant to be this very seamless, natural, easy thing.
Yeah. All the way down, small, impish.
One of the things that we really responded to in visual effects
was pulling up this reference material.
There was a time lapse video of a strawberry ripening,
and that was kind of, the biggest inspiration.
-See? -No, I'm doing this.
Okay, this is completely new territory.
We are in studio. We're doing the scenes where,
Jen has been cousin-napped by Bruce,
and taken back to his beach lab,
and she is undergoing, like, Hulk training.
Oh, my God, Bruce, what the hell?
It kind of feels like if I don't transform, I'm gonna die!
Learning to be a Hulk,
how to eat like a Hulk, how to dress as a Hulk,
how to control her transformations,
but what's so cool about it is that she's pretty great at controlling them.
Far better than Bruce is.
The triggers are anger and fear.
Oh. (BLOWS RASPBERRY)
Those are, like, the baseline of any woman just existing.
A lot comes more easily to her than it did for him.
It's a little frustrating, I'm not gonna lie.
Guess we could just...
skip all that then.
You know, he wants to be her mentor.
I mean, there is no other person
in the universe who's sort of,
gone through what he's gone through,
and so I think he's so excited
to have this other person to lay all this on, and...
But she's so far ahead of him.
-Fine. Teach me how to Hulk. -Yes! I mean, okay.
Mark's amazing. He's so, playful, and, like, open,
'cause I imagine it must be a weird thing
to be taking this character that you've known for years,
that you've explored in certain contexts,
but then to take him out of that context, and put him in, like,
this very different tone in this very different world.
It's just really fun to see him, like,
explore that character in a totally different way.
(BOTH EXCLAIMING)
RUFFALO: I've been doing this for almost 10 years now,
and I think we've done a really good job of switching it up,
and taking the characters, both Banner and Hulk to a lot of different places.
So, it's definitely kept it interesting for me,
and this is a whole other, like... Really playing long scenes,
and playing with another person,
who is in motion capture, I haven't really gotten to do.
There's that one time that I was stuck as the other guy for over two years.
-That was on another planet. -No, I can't be this for two years.
No, I was in space! I said one time!
Whoa. You have so much to learn about living as a Hulk.
I think Jessica and all the writers just nailed it,
in terms of it's so specific. It's such a, like, sibling relationship.
-Smug-Hulk. -Smart-Hulk.
Well, it's pretty smug to call yourself smart.
Yeah, I didn't come up with it.
There's very little listening happening and a lot of explaining. (LAUGHS)
And a lot of telling the other what's up.
-Come on, Bruce! Let me out. -Put the helmet back on!
MASLANY: It feels really innate, and it was, kind of,
a natural place for Mark and I to go, for some reason.
-Are you wearing fake eyelashes? -No, what are we talking about?
This is totally natural.
-It's been amazingly fun. -It's been so much fun. It's...
-It's been a great time. -The dumbest time.
-It's dumb fun. -It's dumb, yeah.
Which is the best kind of fun.
No, the hard time during the good time.
-There's a good time during a hard time. -There's a good time during hard time.
-Darn it, I had it right the first time. -Okay.
JASON TAMEZ: The art department designed these fabulous sets.
It put us on the beach, and we created the exterior
on a back lot pad against blue screen here.
Built the tiki bar, and part of his beach house garage,
and ultimately have this showdown, this fight between Hulk and She-Hulk.
-Lunkhead! -Dummy!
(GRUNTS)
RUFFALO: We got to do all our own stunts.
I mean, we got to do
-our big stunt fight scene together. -Yeah.
-(SCREAMS) -(GRUNTS)
We did these drills where they were, like, competing throwing boulders,
and she's winning,
and it was one of my favorite moments of the whole shoot
where they just, kind of, went crazy and let loose.
My bar!
MASLANY: What else? We did ground-pounding.
-We did Hulk-leaping, we did some pushes. -You shoved me.
-We did coconut... -We did coconut time.
Oh, yeah, and I nailed you in the face every time.
Ten guys all missed me and the only one that was our dead ringer was her,
every single time.
(GROANS AND GRUNTS)
MAN: Action!
Jen, people wanna know everything about you.
You're a public figure now. And I'm famous adjacent. Yes!
One of the first people I thought of for this
after Tatiana was cast was Ginger.
And they're about the same age, and that was important to me,
that they be peers, and be real friends.
They're not just work friends, they are people who relate on every level.
Thinking you're gonna be an Avenger.
Gettin' Captain America. Making sure he's done the deed before
-so he knows how to help you. -Bye. Bye.
This was the one role, actually,
that we did setup chemistry tests for,
because their relationship, you know,
is like one of the core dramatic things that the show is riding on.
If you don't believe their friendship,
then nothing else is really gonna work.
-We did a scene where... -Yes!
-This is the gala scene. -Yeah.
And me and Ginger walked in...
GINGER GONZAGA: To cool music, like, we chose the song.
-MASLANY: We did a whole thing. -We were serving it.
MASLANY: Then Kat, in the notes she gave after the take, was like,
"Could you guys just do it, like, cool?
-"You know, make it look cool?" -Yeah, and we died, because
we had been serving our best cool,
and we thought we had been freakin' cool,
so I literally didn't know what I could give.
Ginger's brain works faster than anybody's brain on the planet,
especially mine.
She's just, like, the sharpest person I've ever met.
She can improvise so, like, seamlessly, effortlessly.
She's just, like, always in flow.
If things go bad, we're gonna have five people for Mahjong!
-Yes! -What's that?
It's a tile game, we'll have to go and get the Chinese tiles...
That sounds like more my style.
I would rather that than five guys at the same time.
Then add it to your profile, girl.
I'm lucky that they support me
and I get a lot of freedom to play around and use my brain.
Improvising's my favorite thing to do.
So, I'm like so grateful that they let me "go rogue."
That's the guy who says, "You don't need to wear any make up".
That guy was born wearing that pinkie ring.
That guy was wearing sunglasses inside.
Teal ones that matched
-the color of his shirt. -Yeah.
-I need a favor. -Okay.
Will you stand in line with me waiting for a sneaker drop?
The Iron Man Threes are comin' out,
and they're limited to one pair per customer.
Why do you need two pairs?
One to rock and one to stock.
GONZAGA: I love the Pug-Nikki dynamic.
Pug is just so sincere, just as Josh is in life, and, like, really amped.
And he is just there to be a ride or die for his two gal pals.
That was everything that I wanted it to be.
It's a crazy feeling knowing that you're working at Marvel,
and you're working, and you're getting to bring characters to life
that are in comic canon.
Bringing Pug to the screen, and just, kind of, gettin' to see what this world
looks like in this MCU law world,
I'm pretty stoked to be a part of it, bro.
I think I chose the right law firm. I'm a lucky cat that they chose me back.
I made you guys a welcome basket.
-Oh! -(CHUCKLES)
It's got some office supplies to get you started,
snacks, and a map to the best bathroom for pooping.
Thank you.
I think it's important to, sort of, capture the workplace dynamics.
So, you know we have this beautiful place that she works in,
and it can be intimidating.
But like, at the heart of it, what are sort of the same
workplace dynamics that people are used to, which is there's the boss
who you're trying to impress but you also, like,
can't really read them. And they know that.
There's like the friends you work with, and you're navigating
the friendship relationship, even though that person works for you.
There's the co-worker that you wanna be friends with
but is cool and you don't know when you're in.
There's a lot going on.
(SIGHS) How does she always look so impeccable? Where does she shop?
Somewhere with valet parking.
RENÉE GOLDSBERRY: Mallory Book is the face that never lost a case,
which is a daunting thing to play.
Most importantly, she's really good at her job.
I think of her as a superhero in the court.
Thank you, Your Honor.
As you will see, there are no issues of fact here
that would require proceeding to trial.
When I found out she was playing Mallory,
I was like, losing my mind, I was so excited.
And then when I got to actually work with her,
and see the nuance that she brings to Mallory, you know,
Mallory is written as this, sort of, like, icy, untouchable person.
But Renée just, like, so smartly ties in these beautiful human moments.
As you can see in the "About me" section,
my client wrote, and I quote,
"Mean, green and straight poured into these jeans."
Ew.
I'm serious and I'm pissed.
GAO: In the comics, you know, Titania is another super-powered woman,
but not as powerful as She-Hulk.
And she's just laser-focused on taking down She-Hulk out of,
you know, the implication is out of jealousy.
We wanted to give her a little bit more complexity but also modernize her.
And if there was a female super-powered villain today,
for sure she would be on social media.
Could you take a photo of us?
-Oh, my god, yes. -No.
Back up a little bit. Just give me some space.
And the great thing about Jameela is
she understands that type of personality to a tee.
Try telling that to the thousands of testimonials from my fans
who have had amazing results
with my exclusive line of She-Hulk foot exfoliants,
which, by the way, I have a free sample of,
and offer into evidence. Thank you.
JAMEELA JAMIL: I thought I was going to be playing someone
who poisons people, because those were the sides that I read.
They don't tell you anything at Marvel.
'Cause they're very, very secretive.
Uh, and so I didn't know I would be doing any stunts,
until I'd already signed the contract.
And so I get to Atlanta thinking I'm gonna have a very chill time.
And they were like, "Welcome to six months of stunts."
I'm so strong now. This is, like, 45 tons, that I'm actually lifting right now.
And it's just, like, so easy... Easy for me.
I was really afraid.
Because she had called me and she'd said,
"I've never worked out a day in my life.
"I've never done a fight a day in my life." And I was just like,
"Oh, no. What's gonna happen?"
And then when she showed up, she was so flexible. I was like,
"Okay, we can work with that. Let's have you do some kicks."
She likes spinning. I was like, "Your character spins.
"You know you do a kick and you spin into another fight."
She's all about the hair and the makeup and the clothes.
But still. She came to win.
You see that? That was five months of training.
So, you are welcome.
VALIA: The wedding episode came from the beautiful mind of Jessica Gao.
It was very much based on her life.
Couples massage in ten minutes.
Jen. I was gonna book you one, and then I was like,
"Wait, Lulu, what are you thinking? Jen isn't in a couple."
You know, it's your classic.
You gotta go back home to your old childhood friend's wedding.
And they're kind of a nightmare person.
I don't want you to be a Hulk at my wedding.
Let me have my day, Jen.
Lulu is played by Patti Harrison, who's a star.
Hi. Hi, Jen. Hi!
HARRISON: Lulu is a high school friend of Jen's.
I definitely went to high school with girls like that.
And they exist. And they have every right to exist.
But, that doesn't mean that
they don't make existence harder for everyone else around.
How could you do this to me on my wedding day?
Now everything's ruined!
I always thought if I would meet her in real life,
I'd be like, too intimidated to talk. And I was.
But, I got all, like, the fangirling out early
and, just, like, have loved working with her.
Tatiana is a real-life monster.
She's one of the most toxic people I've ever worked with in my life.
Um... I love her to death and I would kill for her.
And I would kill anyone she told me to.
She-Hulk is at my wedding?
I love you.
-Show me your Matcher profile. Jennifer! -No.
I think we can all agree that
the one thing that the MCU has been missing is S-E-X.
Why does no one have a love life in the MCU?
People have love lives.
So, I was very excited to be able to have that on our show
because that is such a huge part of everybody's lives.
And here's the thing, like dating in your 30s, already awful. The worst.
But then you throw all of this stuff on top of it,
she's gonna have the worst time of it.
That was a test to make sure you're listening.
I like doing little tests on first dates.
Jen can be quite tightly wound,
and sort of so fixated on work as her only defining feature that,
Nikki consistently reminds her that there is a life outside of her job.
And also to, like, embrace the She-Hulkness of herself.
I'm not proud of this.
So she creates a profile and she instantly gets all of these matches
and sets up all of these dates and she goes on a speed-dating round.
Is there anything worse than dating in your 30s?
If you wanna make partner, the best thing to do is bill a lot of hours.
That's what my protagonist did.
I have to admit, I was a fan before we matched.
Todd is a billionaire, playboy,
philanthropist douchebag.
I love Wakanda. You know, I actually, studied abroad there.
He meets She-Hulk on a date. He's a total creep.
God, you're just so powerful. What a specimen.
And then he just starts popping up in all of these places.
It's very obvious that he wants more than anything to sleep with She-Hulk.
But then it becomes a little bit more apparent that there's a much
seedier reason for that. And that's to get her blood.
(ALL CHANTING) Take She-Hulk's power!
Take She-Hulk's power! Take She-Hulk's power!
COIRO: Jon Bass is just wonderful. He's odious and horrible
but you also kinda love him.
Here's the thing, Jen. I didn't just get handed my powers.
I had to earn them.
BASS: Yeah, it's the most fun to play the villain.
If you don't know that, know it now.
I would like to introduce our very special guest speaker.
He cost a ton, so you'd better cheer.
Give it up for the Abomination.
(ALL APPLAUDING AND CHEERING)
Thank you! Thank you.
TIM ROTH: They asked me to come back and do this,
I said, "That sounds like fun."
And they came up with this notion of the character which,
it's a fine line between embarrassing and pretentious, and villainous.
When it says gang, it's not literal gang.
Just make sure you make that clear to the parole board.
Yeah, no, I will.
Tim is a character. He is a total character.
Excuse me, Jen, babe, sweetheart, doll face.
MASLANY: He was very playful.
And so I think to come into this show where now it's like a comedy,
it was like a fun thing to see him navigate.
I'm actually appalling myself with this tone.
On the page, he was much more likeable
and straightforward
And Tim brought these layers where you don't know if she should trust him,
but at the same time, he still deserves justice.
And I think it makes her character very sympathetic
because she is like,
"I don't really wanna do this. This guy tried to kill my cousin.
"But what happened to him was wrong."
And to me, that really hearkened back to the comics,
to, like, the Jen Walters who will fight for what is right, no matter what.
Yes, Emil Blonsky is a polarizing figure.
But he has served adequate prison time.
And he has demonstrated that he has been rehabilitated.
He deserves a future as a free man and a productive citizen.
This is Dunaway Gardens. This is Emil Blonsky's camp.
We have the yurt where we do our yurting.
We have our Room of Feelings where we express our feelings.
-Jen. -Wow, this is quite a group.
You're welcome to join.
This is El Águila.
-Man Bull. -Porcupine.
Dirk Garthwaite and he is, aka the Wrecker.
We are breaking down some of the relationships
that are kind of clogging us up as individuals.
And, you know, doing the work.
We just tryin' to be good people.
We just have different perspective on what good is,
sometimes, you know what I mean?
Saracen.
Man Bull and El Águila have been spending a lot of time together.
-Yeah. Mmm-hmm. -And that's great.
But I'm feeling like maybe it's not healthy.
We're shooting a very atypically long scene here, which is really fun.
I think usually when you think of television scenes,
you don't get to really sit and do some proper scene work.
But this is like a 16 page scene where we really see, She-Hulk, Jen,
really kind of, open herself up, share her vulnerabilities,
share her disappointments, and her fears.
And I think it's a really beautiful opportunity
to connect with who Jen really is.
Everyone legitimately does pay attention when I'm this.
Like, guys, my colleagues, my boss.
But it does feel like cheating, in a way,
because I wonder if those people
would like me without all of this.
JENNIFER BOOTH: It epitomizes these dual sides of our lives, you know?
I think we all wanna be She-Hulk but we really relate to being Jen Walters.
Maybe you can stop using She-Hulk as a protective shield
and trust us with Jen.
She's a super-powered being but you really get into the intricacies
of, like, what she's dealing with emotionally.
-Yeah! -Great job.
I gotta say, that felt really good.
Ms. Walters. I have a legal situation of the greatest importance.
You know, A, I'm a fan
and then B, to, sort of interweave myself into all of these series
is just the best for me.
-JEN: Finally! -My apologies, Ms. Walters, Emil.
I lost track of time, I was watching the series finale of Breaking Bad.
It's just fantastic to portal in and out.
You took your time, didn't ya?
He was just so great as Wong. I just loved working with him.
Let me send Donny to the Mirror Dimension? He won't last a week.
I would love that. But that will ruin our case.
On his last day, like, quietly, suddenly, there was a DJ booth up on,
a set we weren't using.
And Benedict was like, DJing.
(TECHNO MUSIC PLAYING)
He is the best. He is, like, such a dream.
Now, that's magic.
GAO: We are in the theater, at a magic show.
And I don't wanna say cut rate but not A-list magician,
named Donny Blaze is performing a show.
"A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet."
In desperation, he pulls out a sling ring and thus,
begins a long journey of trying to get this guy
to stop using real magic in his fake magic shows.
(ALL APPLAUDING)
We were gonna shoot in a real theater here in Atlanta.
I mean, we had it all drawn up and planned to go there.
I mean, it was, pretty locked in.
And then, last minute, everybody's like,
"You know, we're doing so much work to the theater,
"maybe we should just build it."
It was inspired by old-style theaters.
So, full of memorabilias of magical things and magical elements.
So, we just start with a strong collaboration
to make sure that the action can take place in the proper way.
So, for example, in a common theater,
you will have more theater seats.
We decide to take the side rows and the front and the back rows away
and to have a mix of like, chairs and tables, exactly for right action.
So, the demons and the fight
can take place and it becomes a little bit more dynamic.
Oh, wow, look at that!
RHYS COIRO: His name is Donny Blaze.
That's his stage name.
I won't reveal his actual name.
What's the matter, Wong?
Are you scared I'll become more mystical than you?
We wanted the magic and the character to stand on its own.
So, we actually found a professional magician to advise him
and consult with him and Rhys has been working,
you know, super diligently.
Card tricks, rabbits, doves, you know, smoke bombs.
(RHYS BLOWS)
Well, it's a very humble profession, magic.
I've been goin' around trying to practice my tricks
and people are entertained but then also, sort of
want nothing to do with it.
-Backin' away. It's pretty funny. -(BOTH CHUCKLE)
Donny Blaze!
FYI, these don't smell like anything.
JACOBSON: He opens a portal and an unsuspecting audience member,
who is a party girl, played by amazing comedian Patty Guggenheim,
falls through the show and into Wong's sanctum.
Where am I?
What happened to all of the goblins?
Who are you?
The hardest thing to do, I think, is to play drunk convincingly.
And she's so good at it that she said it's a dial.
That's how specific and tuned in she is.
Madisynn with two Ns, one Y, but it's not where you think.
Yeah, I feel like I've been preparing for this role for a long time in my real life.
(CHUCKLES) Is that too personal?
Madisynn's, like, a superhero of the real world,
who speaks for all of us.
She's present, she lives in the moment.
And I think we can all take a lesson from her book.
I kinda like browned out and...
Now I'm here.
(RINGS BELL)
WONG: We just had a lot of fun there.
Case closed!
The Madisynn-Wong combination, goes quite well, really.
He's kind of like sort of just...
He's kind of got this puppy dog, really, that he can't really do anything about.
-Okay, Wongers, can we get fro-yo? -No.
We could talk about The Sopranos.
Fine.
No more spoilers.
GOLDSBERRY: The fun of the show is to combine this legal world
and all of the possibilities around superhero weirdness.
I mean, what could happen when you think of the legal ramifications
of some really amazing, awesome powers?
That's what so wonderful about the Mr. Immortal episode.
DAVID PASQUESI: I'm Mr. Immortal.
I am able to regenerate after death.
Unfortunately, I don't have any other strengths.
I'm not strong or fast, or necessarily very bright
but I can come back after I die.
I really do not care for conflict in any way.
As soon as things get comfortable, I just exit.
Are you saying that instead of having a conversation with your wife,
you kill yourself to get out of the relationship?
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't kill myself.
I'm immortal, so I can't die.
Mallory and I clearly side with the women,
but we have to represent him.
And we had a lot of, lot of really funny, local Atlanta-based guest stars.
I spent $10,000 on a New Orleans jazz funeral.
The way that the three of them really work together is very funny to watch.
They really have fallen into a groove.
You're gonna have to pay.
Why are you smiling?
It's kinda fun.
Another character that we had,
that was so well portrayed and such a great surprise, was Runa.
COIRO: We were auditioning, like, young, beautiful women.
We really could not find somebody.
And I had this crazy dream that Taika and Jon Favreau were like,
"Kat, you need to play this role. We've both been in the movies.
"You need to play the shapeshifter."
And I woke up and I was like,
"No, I definitely don't wanna play the shapeshifter.
"But maybe, the takeaway is I want someone old."
And I'm not old but I'm older than the girls we were auditioning.
Thank you so much. Thanks for the dream. It's now my dream.
JACOBSON: We auditioned Peg O'Keef.
We were like, "This is the woman for us."
Let that be a warning.
I am, like, the ultimate entitled brat.
However, I'm, I don't know, 3,000 years old.
I know I don't look a day over 2,999,
but for Runa, she has developed a delicious appetite
for creating trouble everywhere she goes.
I'm not really Megan.
GAO: You watch all these movies in the MCU and everybody has awesome suits.
You know, we just imagined like, if we, a normal person,
became a super hero one day, like, would we even know who to ask?
It's not like you can just Yelp, "Superhero clothes".
Who makes the stuff? Where do they shop?
My client list is very exclusive because my work is impeccable.
And I'm very discreet.
Just ask any one of the Avengers.
When I first got the job, I got to tour the warehouse.
There's a Marvel warehouse in an undisclosed location.
And I got to tour it, and I saw all of the incredible tailors
and designers making the actual costumes, and so I learned a lot.
There's a lot of precision, there's a lot of artistry.
So, it just informed my character.
Tinsley, order extra bolts of the stretch wool.
We're going to need a lot.
I also kind of went back into the archives and got a little crazy about Basquiat.
What I liked was the madness of his art and also the way that he looked.
It was so specific.
And then I also went down a rabbit hole of, like, black hairstyles.
'Cause I felt like, "Ah, what's Luke doing?"
He's like halfway in the past and he's, you know, in the future.
-JEN: Oh, I like it! -Of course you do, because I'm a genius.
And I landed at an eighties mullet.
I don't know who told you that you could pull off this color,
but you should go back to them and shoot them.
GAO: Now, in the post Endgame world, you know,
there are just more and more and more superhumans
and there's gotta be one spoiled rich kid who's gonna want that,
and then use their parents' money to fund, forcing this to happen.
The store might be closed, but you forgot about the Guard Frog.
When I put that suit on, it was like, "Wow."
I look in the mirror, and I'm like,
"I can't believe that I'm in a super-suit right now. This is insane."
There's no shame in retreat. Live to leap another day.
Time to ribbit and rip it.
That's, like, three catchphrases. Pick a lane, man.
Whoo!
You know, Kat sent me a picture the night before of, like, my throne,
and she was just kind of like, you know,
"Hey, just letting you know, this is kind of what we're lookin' at
"for your lair."
Even then I was just like, "What? This was made for me?"
And then I show up that day
and me and Griffin are kinda walking in at the same time,
and he was like, "Brandon, look behind you."
I turn around and it's my character on the wall,
bouncin' around and all that,
and I said "You've got to be kidding me."
Guys, how do we feel about the name Leap Squad?
You know, like, "Leap Squad!"
We had scouted this used auto part place.
And we had this very dark, stereotypical villain's lair.
And Kevin Feige actually looked at it and said,
"It's cool but it feels like it needs another layer."
And when he said that, we kind of went crazy with this frog theme.
ELENA: 'Cause you think about poisonous frogs.
They are all colorful like a, you know, strong yellow or blue.
So that was kind of an inspiration for that environment.
I can't believe this dodo has henchmen.
Actually, I can. I bet these goons work for his dad.
We were in the writers' room and breaking the show.
You know, we really thought a lot of the magic of the show,
aside from living in Jen's world, would be tying it to the larger MCU
with all of these different kind of court cases.
And I think we, we put Daredevil on kind of, like, a wishlist,
'cause we were all fans of Charlie's and of the original show.
GAO: The approach with bringing him in was,
"Okay, well, he's a lawyer, so, obviously,
"you want to see the two of them go head-to-head in the courtroom."
But also, you know,
he's the guy who's doing what Jen Walters is pushing up against,
which is to be a superhero and a lawyer at the exact same time.
And we wanted to make him, you know, in keeping with the tone of the series,
a little bit lighter, a little bit funnier, and also,
who doesn't want to hook up with Daredevil?
We're all feeling this, right, it's not just me?
I was doing some theater on Broadway with Tom Hiddleston.
And, of course, Kevin and Tom know each other very well,
and Kevin came to see the play and I said hello afterwards and shook his hand.
But there was no conversation whatsoever about coming back or anything like that.
And then it was on July 10,
I was in the garden at home and playing with the kids and the phone rang.
And it was Kevin Feige. And I was...
I thought it was a prank.
And, you know, Kevin said that they had some plans for me and wanted me to,
potentially do a couple of things. He just wanted to check and see
if I was interested and willing to come back and be part of
the MCU, which was, not a hard question to answer.
So, are you, like, a superhero?
Like the Gold Devil?
I'm Daredevil.
Charlie had to inform me that the character could not, in fact, see.
That is not true. That's not true.
There's a joke we have, we've always had, which is that "It's very easy to forget."
Because Matt Murdock is so capable,
and that his visual impairment doesn't actually inhibit him in any way,
you always have to be reminded that there are certain things...
You can't actually really look at things in the same way.
But, like, it can sound really condescending when I'm like,
-"Yeah, he's blind, by the way." -He's not condescending at all.
One of the first things we had, it was scripted,
they look at each other and I said,
"Oh, this is the moment where they look at each other."
And he so politely, he said, "How do... Well, I, I don't...
"He's blind."
Remind me how many times you've taken out a warehouse full of goons.
Remind me again who has the superpowers here?
I'm pointing at myself.
Yeah, I know. I have echo location, remember?
It'd been so long since I played the character that
it was a little bit like
"God, I hope I still remember who this guy is,
"if I can still find the feelings."
The suit helped that, I put that on, I was like,
"I remember this."
It was really, really fun seeing Daredevil in his suit.
On the day Charlie came out in the suit, but he didn't have the cowl on yet
and he gets to his mark and he's in position and everybody's ready,
and the very last thing he did was finally put the cowl on.
I love this sound.
And as soon as that cowl was on his head,
all of the extras, we had a big crowd,
and all of them started applauding and cheering,
and it was just so cool.
I feel like I've actually come out of retirement.
They asked me to come to Los Angeles to have a suit fitting.
And I assumed it was just to see if the old one still fit.
Make sure I haven't put on too much weight.
And, so I flew in. I went to the costume department
and on the wall, there was a graphic of a superhero suit.
Initially I was like, "Is tha..." I couldn't figure out who it was.
I realized it was the new Daredevil suit,
and they'd incorporated the gold or the yellow
from some of the earlier Daredevil comics.
It feels like this is the first step in an evolution of this suit
which is why it has the gold panels in there.
It's almost meant to feel a little bit like a primer part of the suit.
And it's really fun seeing Charlie in that suit.
-Think I'm gonna wear it home. -Okay. See you later.
You need to back off.
And waste this outfit?
The suits are amazing.
And I'm so excited, personally, about her suit
because it was something that,
you know, we as a team really developed and really talked about.
We look at who, you know, she was in the comics
when she was in the suit,
what elements of that suit were important to everybody and especially color palette.
And so, all of us together trying to figure out
what is gonna be the best look for Tatiana.
One of the things we wanted to accomplish with her suit was have it be powerful,
you know, not be male-gazey and all hypersexual.
But also be free and show her body off.
She-Hulk smash.
It's cool to take a character who isn't slick and isn't cool
and isn't confident physically or any of that and put her in this suit
that feels very confident.
And it does change me and it does feel like I can feel Jen's excitement.
And like her, kind of, wonder at getting to be...
Like, I, I'm going, like,
"Oh, my God, I get to be a superhero the same way that I think she is."
(GROANS)
Gotcha.
GAO: We really, really, really struggled with the finale.
We started off doing a lot of versions of the finale that were much more
just like straight and very, very Marvel movie, you know,
and it just never felt right for us to just end in, like,
a big set piece fight and you know, and take out the bad guy
and it just always felt like, "Oh, it's a different show now."
And Kevin was the first to kind of pinpoint that. He was like,
"This isn't a Marvel movie.
"Why are you trying to make it end like a Marvel movie?
"That's not what the show is."
And it was just really, really wonderful and freeing for him to say that.
This is not gonna work, right?
We're not actually doing this?
BASS: At the end of the day, Todd really just knows that, like,
he would be definitely the coolest Hulk.
Maybe not the strongest, definitely not the tallest.
I am, as I've been told, I believe, the shortest Hulk to date.
(GRUNTS)
(SCREAMS)
Oh. Gross.
The challenge with the finale was blocking and there's four CG characters.
Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
Then we have Abomination, who's picking Jen up and holding her up
while he's fighting other people.
Get her!
JEN: Stop!
GANDERTON: And then Hulk arrives.
(GRUNTS)
GANDERTON: You have Todd-Hulk.
Yeah, come at me, bro.
(ALL CHEERING)
Surprise, losers.
GANDERTON: And then Jameela fighting.
God! Does that bitch ever use a door?
Just doing the blocking and the design and making sure each character had
the right moment for them and then trying to tie all that in together.
It's like a really cool thing.
You just go home, and you go, "That was pretty wild today,
"acting opposite Ruffalo and, and Maslany in their CGI dots,"
and you know that that's gonna turn into
what it's gonna turn into and...
It's pretty crazy. This whole thing is pretty wild and special.
None of these storylines make any sense.
Is this working for you?
Hey, what do you think you're doing?
I've been in the Marvel Universe for almost ten years now.
And I could say that I've never done anything that has been
so close to destroying the Marvel Cinematic Universe
as this show has.
There's a lot of ways that the show kinda busts through to the viewer,
the same way that She-Hulk in the comics spoke to the writer and the illustrator.
And sort of, like, tried to guide her story.
Ah, Marvel: Assembled.
That'll do. (GRUNTS)
GAO: It was Kevin who actually pitched
She-Hulk coming out of the Disney Plus menu.
I can't remember how we got to it but at one point,
I had pitched that she should go through the studio and demand to talk to Kevin.
Wow, She-Hulk. Welcome to Marvel Studios. How can we help you?
I need to talk to Kevin.
GAO: And at first, I pitched that she would finally get to, like,
the inner sanctum of Kevin
and we'd stunt-cast it with, like, Jon Hamm or some...
Or George Clooney, like,
some debonair handsome man in a tuxedo and that was Kevin.
But then I was like, "No, no, no, no. It should be, like,
"an Akira style, like AI kind of, you know, monstrous machine."
K.E.V.I.N: Hello, Jennifer.
Kevin?
It stands for "Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconnectivity Nexus."
Were you expecting a man?
Yeah. Why would I expect a giant AI brain and not a man?
It's so nuts. It's so absurd.
But I just can't wait to see how that sequence comes together.
Because again, it was like in a mo-cap suit.
I can't imagine what it'll look like when it's She-Hulk.
Wait. So, you're the one who's making all the decisions here?
I will answer your questions.
But you must first transform back to Jennifer.
Why?
-You are very expensive. -Oh, sure.
But wait until the camera is off you.
The visual effects team has moved on to another project.
-Okay. -There. Do it now.
-Better? -Thank you.
GAO: In the script, I specified that when you meet the AI K.E.V.I.N,
that it was just wearing a classic Kevin Feige black baseball hat.
VisDev was doing different concept drawings of Kevin
and he always had a little black baseball hat.
And then when Kevin saw it, the real Kevin, he was like,
"That doesn't make any sense. Why would a machine make a hat?"
I was like, "You have a problem with that?
"That's where you draw the line with logic?
"That the machine that is you, who is behind the entire Marvel Universe
"is wearing a baseball hat?"
I leave that debate up to the Internet.
GAO: So, they designed what looks like a hat
built into the machine so that it is part of the machine,
but it still looks like a hat.
And that's kind of the happy medium that we arrived on.
You will not be able to access the K-E-V-I-N again.
What?
That error on our platform has been fixed.
So, get your K.E.V.I.N. hats at the Disney store.
Welcome.
Wonder if I get a discount here.
-Twenty percent. -I'll take it.
It still continues to be like a thing I'm trying to wrap my head around.
Like, when we're on set, doing stuff like on location like this.
I start to remember that this is, like, a whole universe that I'm part of.
This is a multi-year journey you're about to embark on,
on coming to terms with being the Hulk.
It took a little bit of getting used to at first,
just how interconnected everything has to be in the MCU.
But then it is cool later on when you kind of see like
the threads of different stories and characters going through,
like, multiple projects.
You got sucked in another show, didn't you?
RUFFALO: Marvel has never let the weight of the Universe
drag them into something boring.
Because of it, it's alive and it's constantly shifting,
just like the comics were.
It's good.
-It's good to be a Hulk. -Yeah.
VALIA: It is such an incredible honor
to be able to be a small part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Like, it's such grand storytelling.
So, to be able to come in and get to work with these actors,
and get to work with these writers and with Kevin, it's just, like...
"I can't believe it. What am I doing here?"
(LAUGHS)
That was so good. That was it!
JACOBSON: Being here seeing it all come to fruition
and seeing what every single person
has added to what I already thought was a really special project
has been the biggest highlight for me.
COIRO: When I would have hard days, or something didn't go right,
or I felt tired or frustrated...
Trying to remember my Doctor Strange.
...I'd just pull up one of my favorite little scenes
and watch it and be like, "We're doing this."
I think everybody is just so excited to be here,
so everyone's bringing this really,
positive, collaborative energy.
(ALL LAUGHING)
It's been an embarrassment of riches.
We keep one-uping how cool everyone is and that just makes it so fun.
I remember distinctly, when we were wrapping,
I was like, "I don't know if I'm gonna have an experience like this again."
And I'm so grateful for it.
(ALL CHEERING)
Yes, yes, yes, yes!
(FUNKY INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
It takes shield's power.
You've taken me from zero to just above zero.
(GRUNTS)
(GROANS)
Was that a spoiler?
Can we rewind the tape?
(GRUNTS)
It's not that I'm into superheroes.
I'm just more attracted to superheroes. Okay? That's not weird. You know?
You're the weird one, for saying that that's weird.
So, I'm having trouble remembering the line.
(BANNER AND JEN SCREAMING)
It was easy. I wasn't scared at all. Not for a second.
I'm taking this.
Is this gluten free?
Is it?
Oh, whatever.
So, um... Yeah, I wanna go with the burned sienna, or just sienna.
Have you heard of the saying that it's dangerous to corner a wild frog?
Actually, have Carrington, and Bob Thompson just switch jobs.
All buzz, no bad.
(BOTH CHUCKLE)
Yeah. Okay.
These are... These are... These are all for you, bruh.
-These are all for you, bruh. -Okay.
-A bodacious buzz, no bleh. -All right. Okay.
Oh, and find out if my sister's still alive.
I am still prettier than all of you. (SOBBING)
-(ALL EXCLAIMING) -(JAMEELA LAUGHS)