She-Hulk: Attorney at Law will attempt to upend the usual comic book perspective by utilizing the female lens.
Director and executive producer Kat Coiro spoke to Entertainment Weekly about crafting the new Disney+ series, which looks to bring considerable absurdity to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it will also attempt to showcase a powerful female superhero who also happens to be a lawyer. And just as the screen will be filled with women, behind-the-scenes, the series was also creatively crafted by a group of women who understood just what to bring to the MCU.
"I will be so excited on the day when that is not a big deal," Cairo said of the largely female creative team. "We're not there yet, but I hope that this show is part of that movement, where it's just accepted that some shows are predominantly led by women because that's how life is. It was definitely something we talked about, about inclusivity and making sure that the story was told through the female lens. Comic books have traditionally, in the art, been through the male gaze, and so there was a lot of talk about what is the female gaze and how do we create this from our point of view."
She-Hulk Is A Truly Powerful Woman
For Cairo, that meant not only focusing on Jennifer Walters' love life and career but also examining the ways in which she can move through the world with more power than most women. "One thing I always come back to was one of the wish-fulfillment elements of getting to see her walking down a dark alley, and someone gives her a hard time, and she's able to kick their butts," she continued. "It was something that every single woman could relate to, any woman, of any age. How exciting would it be to walk home in the dark and not worry? She-Hulk is able to walk home, even while wearing headphones, and not worry, because she has the power to not feel vulnerable physically. And I think that's a pretty unique thing that only a group of women could have brought to this, among other much more nuanced things as well."
The San Diego Comic-Con trailer for She-Hulk showed Jennifer getting into plenty of scraps, in and out of the courtroom. There's even a scene that appears to be set in one of those dark alleys, where a group of men with mysterious tech -- likely the Wrecking Crew -- attack the hero. But Cairo and the team were also able to explore smaller moments of power.
"We talked a lot about women feeling the need to be polite," Cairo said. "If some guy comes up to you in a bar, it's obvious what he wants, but you don't want to offend him because you are afraid of being rude. Jennifer Walters has this new part of herself that doesn't have to temper that and doesn't have to put up with things she doesn't want to put up with. Jennifer Walters doesn't have to put up with that crap."
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law premieres on Disney+ on Aug. 18, with new episodes streaming Thursdays.
Source: Entertainment Weekly