The hits — or lack thereof — just keep on coming for the House of Mouse.
Disney and Marvel just trudged through one of the most critically and commercially panned years in either company’s storied film/television history in 2023, but it appears those woes date back even further.
“She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” debuted on Disney+ in August 2022, and immediately became a divisive show for a number of reasons.
Setting aside whatever one may think of the character of She-Hulk (a wholly subjective matter), the show itself was rife with issues that fans called out.
First — and most noticeably — the CGI work in the show is extremely inconsistent, which is becoming a recurring MCU issue.
There are times when She-Hulk (and any other CGI cameo) looks completely serviceable, and other times when it looks like an AI’s first stab at utilizing the most perfunctory CGI tools.
The plot is also a bit of a mess, there’s a weird attempt to sexualize the character (a She-Hulk “revenge porn” video serves as a key MacGuffin in the series), and “Attorney at Law” continued Marvel’s strange insistence of turning the Hulk into something decidedly softer and more effeminate than what one would expect from a hulking green force of unadulterated destruction.
Oh, and the less said about She-Hulk “twerking” (don’t look it up) with rap star Megan Thee Stallion, the better.
Perhaps worst of all, the show decided to make toxic fans (i.e. fans who want Disney Marvel to ditch the social messaging and respect the source material) the big bad of the show.
Did you watch “She-Hulk”?
This hasn’t stopped a very vocal segment of fans from professing their love for this “Yasss queen slay”-take on a well-established superhero.
Much to the chagrin of those fans, however, it seems executives at Disney weren’t nearly as enamored with the fourth-wall-breaking streaming series — and it all comes down to money.
She-Hulk actress and lead star of “Attorney at Law,” Tatiana Maslany, seemed to confirm the budget-related news during an online Twitch stream on Monday.
After a fan asked her about the prospects of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” season two happening, the 38-year-old actress responded:
“I don’t think so. I think we blew our budget, and Disney was like, ‘No thanks,’” Maslany said, according to a transcript from The Direct.
Now “blowing the budget” can mean any number of different things — but none of it is good given the reported price tag of She-Hulk’s foray onto Disney+.
As Forbes pointed out, “Attorney at Law” featured an eye-watering $200 million budget.
And where did the bulk of that budget go? To those aforementioned C-minus CGI effects…
There are two more things worth noting:
- None of this means the show is actually finished. Maslany was very deliberate in making it known that this is just what she thinks, and not an official statement from the studio.
- She-Hulk will almost assuredly continue to exist and live in the MCU.
You can watch and judge “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” for yourself if you own a Disney+ subscription.
