It’s official – She-Hulk has cast Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany.
According to Deadline Disney is closing in on the lead for its new She-Hulk TV show. Canadian-born Tatiana Maslany is the woman who will bring Jennifer Walters (or She-Hulk to her fans) to our screens.
The 34 year old actress has previously won an Emmy for her role in Orphan Black (as a variety of clones of herself!) and has now been given the job of bringing Shel-Hulk – the Lawyer-turned-superhero – to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“The last major character to be co-created by Stan Lee, She-Hulk is Jennifer Walters, an attorney and cousin of Bruce Banner, aka The Hulk. An emergency blood transfusion from her cousin gives Walters her powers, but unlike Banner/Hulk, she was able to keep her intelligence and personality when she Hulked out.”
Maslany joins the already announced and highly rated Director and Executive Producer Kat Coiro, and writer and showrunner Jessica Gao with Marvel looking to put a strong female representation behind a fan favourite female character.
There have already been several different iterations of She-Hulk across the years but her role as a Lawyer who railed against societal attitudes towards women has remained. She-Hulk has long been a character that has fought for gender equality and it’s likely that this will remain in the upcoming She-Hulk series.
It is unclear at this stage whether Disney will opt to have Jennifer unable to control her transformation much like her cousin, Bruce. This was her original Marvel story, but in recent years she has instead remained in her form permanently – retaining her intelligence and control the same as we saw with the Hulk in Avengers: Endgame.
Either way, Maslany looks to be an exciting choice to embody the attitude and charisma of Jennifer, while also having the physical prowess already shown in Orphan Black to go toe-to-toe with the strongest of Marvel supervillains.
Marvel fans will be excited to see how Jennifer fits into the wider Marvel Universe and will know that She-Hulks stories away from the action bring as much excitement as when she is wading into the fight.
She-Hulk has historically struggled with being over-sexualised. But with Disney’s attitude towards Marvel (and with their recent push towards inclusion and diversity) this has the opportunity to really push She-Hulk to be a household name.
And She-Hulk is far more relatable than many of the superheroes already on the roster.
She-Hulk is expected to head to Disney+.
