Action-packed legal comedy She-Hulk just concluded its first season in true Jennifer Walters style, not to mention the excitement for the character’s future. Director Kat Coiro recently sat down with io9 to discuss the season, crafting a distinct take on a wonder show, and that KEVIN cameo with Jen’s nod to the X-Men coming to the mcu.
Sabina Graves, io9: Let’s start with the finale. How amazing – fourth craziest wall breaking I have ever seen. It was so unexpected to see Jen browse the Disney+ menu and then show up at Marvel Studios. What were the conversations like with the She-Hulk team to figure out how to put this together, and what influenced your choices for this?
Kat Coir: Well, it’s funny, when talking about his punch in the Disney menu, I really hoped people would think there had been a malfunction with their TV. When we scripted it, I remember really pinning down the timing so that it was enough for people to think something had happened, but not so much that they were going to change the channel. And so it feels like it worked, which is exciting. Another big part of the process was you have a character that lives on a show and she recognizes that and she’s aware that she has a show. So when she goes to the real world of the Disney lot, we wanted it to be as realistic as possible. We have changed the image format. We changed our style of filming. And we also wanted to shoot on Disney land. And, you know, it wasn’t always a foregone conclusion. Ironically, this was one of the hardest places to secure. But I felt like being there was really important and its authenticity. The receptionist in the finale is Marvel’s real receptionist. He auditioned with other actors and won the role. And so, I think even though it’s weird, it’s still very grounded in reality.
io9: I totally thought something was wrong with my TV for about two seconds. I thought, “Wait, what did we hit? Did the dog touch the remote control? Because it sometimes happens at home. I’m curious about KEVIN’s inclusion; I read that at one point Jon Hamm was considered a stuntman for Kevin. When did it become an AI? Was it on the page?
Cairo: No, our hope was that [Marvel’s] Kevin Feige would do the voice, but he had no desire to do that. And he really wanted to make sure there was a separation between him and the AI brain. But yeah, there were a million names thrown in there: Danny DeVito, Jon Hamm, [and] at one point in the cuts I was doing the voice, but I think it really works better with the robot voice. Part of the fun of Marvel is that there’s no idea it’s not considered, so we had a billion versions of it before we landed where we did.
io9: Did the real Kevin Feige have any influence on the look of KEVIN’s little hat? I appreciated the nod to that.
Cairo: Yes. At first he was resistant. The first two illustrations had an actual baseball cap on the robot, which he didn’t like. And so we subtly integrated it, and slowly made it less subtle. I was just glad everyone understood it, because there was a point where it was so subtle that I don’t think everyone would have understood it.
io9: Throughout the season, there’s been a lot of techniques used, in terms of the tone of a comedic law show, that are sort of integrated into the Marvel action. What stood out to you, being able to capture Jen’s point of view, that helped you let the world know you were showing so that audiences know it’s not typical Marvel fare?
Cairo: I mean, look, I think what makes a good action is never the action sequences, it’s the connection with the audience and the hero. And so to me, part of what’s exciting about our show is that we have so much time to develop her character and see these little intimate little moments of her own dates, of her in her apartment, of her with her friends. So when you get to the action, you’re really invested in it because you kind of like it as a fully formed person. Plot-driven films don’t give you that in the same way a more meandering series does. That being said, I was so excited by how [episode] 108 allowed us to just go for high octane action and enjoy that aspect of the MCU.
io9: The opening back was amazing, can you walk us through a bit of the process of opting in to that and shooting it? I like its analog aspect.
Cairo: I actually just posted the boards for this sequence on my Instagram because it was so meticulously crafted based on the original, but also with those little flairs related to our show, because it’s basically a dream feverish than Jen does. And when you’re a self-aware character living in your own TV show, of course, your fever dream is a generic sequence from another TV show. My favorite story is that bodybuilder, Devon Lewis, who plays the practice She-Hulk painted green, he said that when he was a little boy he always grew up dreaming of being the Hulk. But he never quite imagined that the Hulk would be, you know, standing tall in a sparkly Zuhair Murad party dress – we were joking about being very specific about how you manifest your childhood dreams. But it was just a blast, you know? And we shot it to look analog.
io9: Incredible. And finally, I really like this shot of Tatiana Maslany when she asks KEVIN about the X-Men – just that look on her face that I thought was iconic. Was it a natural fit for her? Like, you guys just threw it away and she said, “That’s what I’m going to do.” Or were there ulterior motives?
Cairo: It’s really funny because we made a sequence of fair questions. You know, there are a million questions, as one can imagine, that Kevin could be asked if they were in his inner sanctum. So that was one of many questions. And this little moment, it’s just one of those magical moments. But Tatiana is so specific. She makes such thoughtful choices. So nothing is really accidental with her, which is pretty good for her.
She-Hulk is now streaming on Disney+.
Want more io9 news? Find out when to wait for the last wonder and star wars versions, what’s next for the DC Universe in Film and TVand everything you need to know about Dragon House and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
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