SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW Creative Team Discuss Breaking the Fourth Wall
There are a lot of people out there that aren’t aware that She-Hulk is one of those characters in Marvel Comics that breaks the fourth wall. When the trailer was released for She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Tatiana Maslany’s character broke the fourth wall and talked to the audience, it seemed like some people were confused or didn’t like it. Well, it’s a part of the character!
Series creator, writer, and director Jessica Gao and director Kat Coiro recently talked about breaking the fourth wall in the series during a press conference and how it evolved over the course of development. Gai said:
"For me, foundationally, I felt like first and foremost the fourth-wall breaking and the kind of meta-humor and the self-awareness was the most important element to retain. Because it was the John Byrne run that made me fall in love with this character, you know? It was just so lighthearted and fun and refreshing. So that was always kind of a foundational element."
She went on to say talk about the evolution of utilizing the breaking of the fourth wall, saying:
"It went through a lot of evolutionary steps. How much should she talk to camera? Is she talking directly to the audience? Is there another meta element? Is she talking to somebody else that's more behind the scenes? At one point there was an iteration in the scripts where instead of talking directly to camera, there were text boxes that were editor's notes—like the comic books, how there were editor's notes in comics—and she was actually interacting with the editor's notes that would be on screen. I mean, we did eventually scrap that idea, but we went through a lot of different versions of how she would do it.
"Ultimately it was about finding the balance. Breaking the fourth wall does connect to the audience and draws us in, but not so much so that we're not connecting to her story in the world that we've built."
I’m curious to see how much She-Hulk actually breaks the fourth wall, but I’m sure that they found the good balance they were looking for. I imagine they looked at Deadpool for inspiration on that.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law follows Jennifer Walters “as she navigates the complicated life of a single, 30-something attorney who also happens to be a green 6-foot-7-inch superpowered hulk.”
The nine-episode series also stars Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk, Tim Roth as Abomination, Benedict Wong as Wong. Ginger Gonzaga, Josh Segarra, Jameela Jamil, Jon Bass, and Renée Elise Goldsberry.
She-Hulk is set to premiere on Disney+ on August 18th.