The creators of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law have discussed the challenges of having a CG character lead a series, acknowledging the "growing pains" they went through to achieve the desired results.
She-Hulk head writer and executive producer Jessica Gao spoke to IGN at San Diego Comic-Con 2022 about the extraordinary challenge of relying almost entirely on VFX to bring Tatiana Maslany's titular superhero to life. Gao admitted it had been a process of "trial and error" and not one that they would necessarily rush to repeat, even though they eventually managed to pull it off.
"This was unprecedented because [Marvel has] never made a TV show where the lead character is completely CG when she's the title character," Gao explained. "When we first started, we didn't really have a plan or know how we were gonna do it. We just knew we were gonna do it and I just figured, 'Look, it's Marvel. They know what they're doing. They're gonna figure it out.'"
However, Gao admitted that it was not as simple as that and it took time for the team to reach an outcome that they were satisfied with. "It's been a process of trial and error," she added. "There's been a lot of growing pains. I think if we had to do it over again, we would probably think long and hard about how often we want a CG character on screen, but it all worked out."
Director Kat Coiro, on the other hand, viewed the undertaking as less of a challenge and more of an opportunity to experiment with VFX using the suite of tools that were available to them. She explained that the actors helped them to incorporate that into production, as they worked together to capture the authenticity of their characters.
"One of the coolest things about working with Marvel is that you get to try every tool that is out there and it's right on the cutting edge, so our methodology was [to use] everything that exists to capture actors' honest performance," Coiro said, sharing more about their approach. "It didn't even feel like a challenge at the end of the day. It felt like a part of the process."
The first trailer for She-Hulk received significant backlash for the sub-par quality of its VFX but the footage also revealed some important connections to the greater MCU as well as a few new players – including Frog Man, the beloved oaf with a heart of gold who has already made it into the hearts of fans across social media.
A new trailer for She-Hulk debuted at Comic-Con, teasing more of the series ahead of its premiere on August 17 and confirming the rumored appearance of Charlie Cox's Daredevil.
Marvel also delved deeper into their plans for the next few years, announcing that She-Hulk would be the penultimate Phase 4 entry and that more Avengers films are on the way.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.