Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany is going to be turning into the most famous green lawyer in all of comic books, as Deadline is reporting that she’s going to star in Disney+’s She-Hulk series as Jennifer “She-Hulk” Walters. The series is coming from Emmy-winning Rick And Morty writer Jessica Gao, with accomplished TV comedy director Kat Coiro (The Mick, Alone Together, Shameless, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) hopping behind the camera for the pilot and multiple additional episodes.
This being a Disney+ show, it seems likely that there will be specific ties to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but unlike WandaVision, Loki, and The Falcon And Winter Soldier, this is the first one that’s about a totally new character—or at least new to the MCU. We heard back in March that Mark Ruffalo might appear in She-Hulk as the He-Hulk (commonly known as just “Hulk”), but so far that hasn’t been confirmed. We also don’t know if Maslany’s Jennifer Walters will be Bruce Banner’s cousin or if she’ll get Hulk powers from a blood transfusion with Banner like in the comics, but it’ll be interesting to see how the show handles the fact that—unlike Bruce—She-Hulk retains her intelligence and personality when she’s Hulked-out and therefore rarely has any reason to not be Hulked-out. Unless they’re painting Maslany green, that might involve some expensive CG.
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She is perfect for this. She is so, so perfect for this.
Comedy chops. Experience playing multiple personalities in one show. Would bet on her if the two of us got into a boxing match. Literally what else do you want from She-Hulk?
To be fair, though, Maslany is one of the very few actors who would be perfect for any role. Hannibal Lecter. Charles Foster Kane. Ace Ventura. Robocop. Wouldn’t matter, she’d knock it out of the park.
This is the most accurate comment on the internet.
Scarlett Johanssen may talk a big game about being allowed to play a tree, but Maslany could actually pull it off uncredited.
I went right off Johansson after she played a Japanese Elm.
She’s simply perfect for this role.
I was recently revisiting her episodes of Comedy Bang Bang. Pure. Bliss.
I lover her and Kristian on CBB. They both just guested on Shaun Diston’s Patreon podcast where, in character as Sprague, he talks about the TMNT universe with Scotty and other guests. He’s done one with Lapkus and Zouks too. Pretty good stuff.
I actually shouted out FUCK YES when I saw the headline.
She really is. I figured Allison Brie was a lock after all the rumors surrounding her, but I think they made the right choice. My personal feelings about superhero movies and TV shows aside, Maslany absolutely deserves a plum role like this, and I was dismayed at all the fairly thankless supporting roles she got after Orphan Black wrapped. It sounds like they’re lining up some good people for this program, and I hope they come up with something good. It will be interesting to see what they do about her look. A ton of CGI will not do for that character. I’d love to see more of an old school, practical look in the GOTG vein, though that amount of makeup day after day could be taxing. Needless to say, I’m actually really fascinated to see how this project develops.
Experimental, full-body tattooing and body cement injections you say?
[As Maslany signs her contract]What’s this part about anabolic steroids, HGH and green food dye?
“Wait, what, Gamma rays? You know those just kill you in real life… Guys? Guys?!”
“First the BBC creates all those clones of me and now this?”
At least they agreed with Maslany that it was only right she be the one to personally shoot the clones when the series wrapped.
Turns out, Krystal Godderich was the original, and all the others were actually clones.
Perhaps a blood transfusion?
See, I think the CGI route IS the correct one. I hope they hue away from the glamazon fitness model who just happens to be green look (i.e. the Frank Cho look), and model this character on her recent look in Avengers – a true Hulk who can go toe-to-toe with Thor.
Yeah you make great points. It’s a tricky line to tread, because the original character is meant to be rather subversive, a 3rd wave feminist in the sense that she’s sexy but that sexiness doesn’t define her, it’s her personality and character. It’s that balance that has to be struck, but they’ve got good people behind the camera who will surely be aware of this (assuming Disney will give them space to try, rather than compel them to make something suitable for brand synergy).Whatever they do, they need to preserve her sense of fun. This should not be a terribly serious program, I think, but one willing to laugh a bit and poke fun at itself and the tropes of the genre, as the comics did.
Maslany is so chameleonic an actor she’ll just be able to convince you she’s green and huge through gesture and intonation.
[Maslany punches through wall on set]Director: Cut! Perfect. Let’s do another take. Props, can we get another foam wall?Props: Uh, that wasn’t a foam wall…
Her episode of the podcast Movies That Changed My Life is also great.
Hopefully getting cast in Marvel doesn’t spell the end of her CBB appearances (RIPossible Paul Rudd and Kumail Nanjiani).
The lady can do anything, she’d be perfect for any role. Like seriously, have her play literally a wall and it’d be the best performed wall you’ve ever seen.
I saw this and immediately thought “Hopefully this means she (and Kristian, please?!) will appear on CBB soon-ish!!!” I love those two on it together so much, especially with PFT. Hoping Kristian has some weird-ass Canadian TV show to promote soon, too.
Maslany is one of the most versatile actresses of our generation… but she’s 5’4″ and rail thin — Hulk? I’m not familiar with She-Hulk from the comics, is there something that I’m missing?
is there something that I’m missing?
something something CGI
She/her-hulk
They Hulk
Boy, it sure is fun to make fun of trans people!
Ok, I gotta ask. Why?
Why what?
Why are you bringing this up?
Bringing up what? That transphobic jokes are shitty and offensive?
You’re replying to “They Hulk”, so I assume you’re referring to the use of the pronoun “they” which, while it can be used as a gender-neutral pronoun, it isn’t clear how it’s being used here. The typical usage is as a plural.
But also, in my experience, trans people prefer to be called by the gender pronoun they’ve chosen, not a gender-neutral one, so I don’t really see why “They Hulk” is a transphobic joke.
Dude come on
Hey, maybe you know “NoOnesPost” better than I do, and if you’ve got a previous bone to pick with them then I won’t get in the way.
But it still doesn’t explain why you’d think “They Hulk” is transphobic. At worst it’s making fun of gender neutrality and even that’s a stretch here.
It really isn’t? You got two guys making “LOLOL pronouns” jokes that are the same kind of shitty jokes every right wing asshole on twitter makes. There really isn’t a mystery to be solved here, Scoob.Seriously. Just…don’t do this. You really don’t need to do this.
Surely it’s better to give people the benefit of the doubt instead of assuming the worst. Especially when the worst, i.e. actual transphobia, isn’t happening here. Hopefully you can recognise that.
Please just stop
Don’t bother with recognitions. They’re a contrarian concern troll. You’ll never get an actual conversation out of them.
I’ve seen recognitions call it correctly in the past.
In this case, equating a dumb pronoun joke to transphobia at best doesn’t help anything and at worst can undermine the fight against hate speech.
I was (attempting?) to make fun of the name She Hulk, not trans people. I sincerely apologize if it came off otherwise.
She-Hulk, He-Hulk and We-HulkI-Hulk, You-Hulk and They-HulkBee-Hulk, Bee-Hulk a lu She-Hulk
So happy Marvel has found a way to repurpose all those boxes RDJ used to stand on to seem taller.
I’m just hoping they keep her Fourth Wall breaking elements from Slott and Byrne’s respective runs.
There needs to be lots of Fourth Wall breaking. Though that could tip over into Deadpool territory.Then again that could lean back into very funny territory.
I think the difference between She-Hulk and Deadpool is that She-Hulk would be more willing to be antagonistic to the writer and would also mess with the comic structure itself.
awwww yeah I’m hoping for a lot of discovery disputes, some standing motions, maybe…dare I even hope…an interlocutory appeal (crosses fingers)?
Also she’ll pick up the jury box and throw it out the window.
If they have the same legal advisors they had on ‘Daredevil’, lower your expectations to Jennifer saying, “Permission to pistol whip the witness?” and the judge saying, “I’ll allow it for now, but watch yourself counsellor.”
and yet somehow Daredevil’s crimes against the profession of journalism and all people of asian descent were even worse, quite an accomplishment!
Sigh. Daredevil really was the answer to the question “What if they found the perfect actors to play Matt Murdoch and Wilson Fisk and then spent the next three years doing whippets rather than writing a script?”
Don’t forget Scott Glenn as Stick. The show was a mess as it went on, but that casting was on par with JK Simmons in terms of “he looks and sounds exactly like I always imagined while reading the comics.”
Good for her she deserves to make some superhero bank
She’s been up for roles in Star Wars and one of Terminator movies but always lost out at the last minute. Which makes me think we’ll get an announcement in a day or so saying they hired someone else
Welcome aboard the money ship. – DaB, Cambs,England., 4/5/2012 9:54
She should be above doing this.
Scorsese, is that you?
Commie bastard
I don’t have arms long enough for the jerk-off motion this deserves.
I adore her and her work. So, yeah. I’m psyched for this choice, one which I hadn’t even considered until now.
it’ll be interesting to see how the show handles the fact that—unlike Bruce—She-Hulk retains her intelligence and personality when she’s Hulked-out(emphasis mine) Well, someone hasn’t watched Avengers: Endgame.
“the most famous green lawyer in all of comic books”Unless you’ve got deuteranopia.
Or the Miller/Romita Jr Daredevil miniseries “Man Without Fear,” in which Matt Murdoch is fresh out of law school, young and inexperienced.
Or the Netflix series, in which Matt Murdoch is an avocado.
Or that time Kermit tried doing law before realizing he was better suited to variety shows.
Hold up, I don’t think I’ve seen Kermit and Daredevil in the same place at the same time…
Finally. It’s disgraceful that it took this long for someone to give her another lead role.
It’s not quite the same, since she only provided a voice, but she played arguably the most prominent of the two leads in the Netflix animated series 3Below.
Oh Goody, another really interesting show in a streaming channel I don’t have.
In the other hand, she’ll only play two roles on this show so meh….
Then go get it. And shut the fuck up.
I had no interest in watching this before. Now, I’m subscribing to Disney+.
You could always get it for a month then cancel it.
I suppose, but it kinda bothers me that in some small way I wouldn’t be contributing monetarily towards the show.Of course, I am a sissy, too.
I hear that. Feels kinda icky giving Disney my money these days. But also, Sasha Banks is in The Mandalorian. Sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do
If they don’t play the transformation game, then camera tricks or CGI will be needed to make Tatiana constantly 6’8″ and jacked.
I’m good with Ruffalo sticking around for a few special eps if he is. It’s time for Ruffalo to do more with that role than just be comic relief. Hulk is not meant to be all that funny.
Or, time for the Banassiance!
I have no idea who this is – and I’m sure she’ll do a fine job. But I was really hoping Stephanie Beatriz would get the role.
Watch Orphan Black. Seriously, it is so good and not just because of her, though she is four or five reasons it is good.
Beatriz is great and deserves more work. This is still a very good casting choice.
I was hoping for character actress Margot Martindale.
I think you mean beloved character actress Margo Martindale.
Titania still needs casting….
Watch at least the first four episodes of Orphan Black immediately.
I’m holding out hope someone makes a live-action Catwoman series and casts Beatriz.
I was stumping for Aisha Tyler. But Maslany is amazing.
Comics experts: Can She-Hulk de-hulkify herself? I never read the comics very much, but I always assumed she was stuck that way, i.e., permanently hulked-out, but compensated for it by retaining her intelligence and personality.
It depends on the era. She started off by transforming back & forth, then she was permanently hulked out for her defining period, & now she’s back to transforming.
Much obliged.
Most of the time, she can, but willfully chooses not to, as she doesn’t really get dangerously angry like her cousin; the only effect on her personality is that she’s a bit more extroverted than she is otherwise.(And if you’re looking for a recommendation, Dan Slott’s run with the character is great!)
There’s a great storyline, which I can’t reference right now, where Jen loses a fight with a super-rival and has to admit she’s gotten complacent about being hulked out all the time. She goes back to being human and starts a fitness regime. When the rival comes back for a rematch, Jen’s hulk form is exponentially stronger and she wins the fight with a single home-run punch…
That’s cool, and something you don’t see too often, how a superhero’s physical fitness when they’re powered down affects their transformed state. That storyline reminds me of a feature in the old Superman Family comics called “Mr. & Mrs. Superman”. It was neatly drawn by Kurt Schaffenberger and featured the Earth-2 Superman, who was close in appearance to the 1940s Superman, and he was married to Lois Lane. There was one story where Superman came to the realization that he was getting weaker, and he was actually powered down to the level of the original 1940s Superman. Then Lois helps him realize that it’s because he’s gotten complacent, and he’s lost muscle because everything is too easy, he can’t get a workout. So he builds a super-gym and does super-exercises that are designed to provide resistance even to his super-muscles. Eventually he builds himself back up to where he was before. It was a silly story in an inconsequential, totally non-canon feature, but it was the only story I ever saw where Superman had to work out to maintain his strength, rather than just being born that way or soaking it up from a yellow sun.
Just did a Wiki dive. She used to transform due to anger/stress, then she could do it at will after Morbius (!) did a blood thing for her. Then she decided to stay there permanently, but somehow got locked there and now she can do it again somehow.
Oh, and Hercules Me-Tooed her by slapping her on the ass and she put him through a wall, which kind of needs to happen now.
Maslany should get as swole as possible so they can film the She-Hulk scenes with minimal CGI.
Maybe Brie can be Titania as a consolation prize?
What a waste of her talents…
She obviously doesn’t think so, but I guess you know better, huh?
Lol, she’s doing it for the paycheck. She fell off the radar after Orphan Black.
Perry Mason is falling off the radar?
her character was almost insignificant in that story.
She’s credited alongside John Lithgow. She’s one of the main characters.
You: She could do better!Also you: Bitch is thirsty lulz!
Yes, the only appropriate use of thespian talent is to be in a glorified soap about members of a university faculty English department’s extramarital affairs…
If you’ve paid any attention to her interviews she loves comedy and fantasy stuff. Orphan Black was exactly a straight drama.
Man, I just got experimental arm surgery to stretch them so I could do the appropriate jerk-off motion for your last comment, and now you’ve gone and raised the bar again.
Yay!
She-Hulk is one of my favorite comics characters of all time, and this casting is so, so good.
Love Tatiana Maslany but she is *tiny*. She-Hulk is 6’7… Tatiana? 5’4.I’m sure they’ll make it work but she’s not especially ideal in terms of the look of She-Hulk.
Wait until you hear how short Mark Ruffalo is compared to the Hulk!
Fun fact: Mark Ruffulo is actually portraying Bruce Banner, alter ego of the Hulk.
Fun Fact: Mark Ruffalo portrays both.I assume you’ve waited for the hype to die down, but you can watch Avengers: Endgame and catch up to the rest of us.
I might be missing a joke, but isn’t he also playing the Hulk though? Especially when he’s ‘Smart Hulk’ which is kind of a combo situation. Motion capture acting is still acting (See Andy Serkis in … most of his roles).
The actual non-Hulked version of the lawyer she’s playing is 5’1″.
https://www.writeups.org/she-hulk-marvel-comics-jennifer-walters-earliest/#:~:text=Height%3A%205'1%E2%80%9D%20Weight,(as%20She%2DHulk).
Jennifer Walter is noticeably smaller in stature than her She-Hulk form. There are more than a few stories where She-Hulk is trapped in a situation and she gets out of it by changing back to Jennifer who is able to get away because the trap/cage/etc is designed to hold She-Hulk, not someone considerable smaller.
yES
Wow. They didn’t mess up casting the lead. This project has about a thousand more landmines to avoid, but this is a strong start.
I’ve heard of Orphan Black, but… Orphan GREEN?
She was also awesome in Perry Mason. I would look forward to this.
Talented actress, but god damn is that a terrible picture of her.
“unlike Bruce—She-Hulk retains her intelligence and personality when she’s Hulked-out”At some point you should catch up on the MCU movies.
This is referring to the majority of the comics, where Hulk does not have Banner’s personality or intelligence.
You had me at Tatiana Maslany
Let Michael Mando appear as Mac Gargan, you cowards!
And have him grow back his finger wait wing villain
This is wonderful news. She’s phenomenal.Also, that is one hell of a weird photo choice to lead this article.
“the most famous green lawyer in all of comic books”I literally can’t think of any other green lawyers in anything be it comics, TV shows or films.
He’s just a simple alien bird lawyer from a backwoods comet, but even he can see that this man is innocent. — From Futurama.
YES!! This is too good to be true!After years of being overlooked, Maslany wins! 😆
She seems a bit small for a Hulk, but she has the sheer acting ability to convince me that she’s 7’2″ and green without using any CGI at all. She is just so freaking talented. I recently did a rewatch of Parks and Rec, and it was actually really disappointing when she showed up and played somebody who was completely normal.Gotta say though, while I loved the new Perry Mason, I thought she was a bit forgettable in that one. Not her fault at all and she did serious work with what she had, the part just seemed a little superfluous to the plot. Like the writers wanted a somewhat glammy, somewhat vampy, somewhat broken character to make it more noirish, but didn’t really know what to do with her. Really though, that show was just an embarrassment of riches in terms of the cast.
Isn’t she super short lol? I love her as an actor, but I’m surprised they went with someone so tiny, I wonder how they’re gonna pull this off.
She’s 5’4″, character she’s playing in non-Hulk form is 5’1″.
https://www.writeups.org/she-hulk-marvel-comics-jennifer-walters-earliest/#:~:text=Height%3A%205'1%E2%80%9D%20Weight,(as%20She%2DHulk).
Yeah, it’s not the non-hulk form I’m curious about. She-hulk spends most of her time in her hulk form. Now while Mark Ruffalo isn’t y’know 9 feet tall and built, he’s not small either, so they just kind of build out his proportions and then hulkify them (As opposed to the comic conception of Banner which is often very petite). I don’t know what that’ll look like for Maslany, and as the article mentions, I’m wondering how this will be budgeted out. I would have assumed they picked a more athletically built actress, like Mackensie Davis or something. Pretty sure Hulk aint cheap, and if their doing her right She-Hulk won’t be either. (But I think these new Disney+ series are getting way more budget than the Netflix series of old, so it may not be an issue at all.) I just hope we don’t see Jen spending most of her time in her non-hulk form as the point of her character is kind of embracing the change (at least early on).
What is a good way to represent happily and surprised raised eyebrows?
Well, that’s great news for her, but I hope someone finds some good roles for the actors who played all the other clones in ‘Orphan Black’. They were really talented too!
Too short.#NotMyShe-Hulk
“Unless they’re painting Maslany green, that might involve some expensive CG.”
Actually, they’ll be forgoing both makeup and visual effects – Maslany will accomplish the transformation purely through acting ability.
Oh HELL yeah. I was a massive fan of Orphan Black and her performances on there were just outright insane. So, so, so good. I can’t think of an actress I’d be quite as excited to see join the MCU. Damn fine choice.
I’m getting really tired of all-CGI characters.#painthergreen
They need to bring in TV Matt Murdock. I don’t know if the Netflix shows still count (or if they ever did), but the one thing people want most from Marvel is crossovers.Also, I want trial of Spider-Man.
I never considered Maslany a Brie-type, but Orphan Black
proved she’s a chameleon. It almost seems like a waste of her
Emmy-winning range since Walters & Shulkie are most often the same
personality, another reason she’s the superior Hulk.