Marvel fans are convinced the She-Hulkfinale teased an exciting Bruce Banner storyline.
The finale of She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law was released on Thursday (13 October), and many viewers think the episode set up a chapter for Hulk that fans have been requesting for some time.
This storyline would position Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner as World War Hulk – one of, if not the most unbeatable forces in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
In episode two, Hulk, in his Smart form that was introduced in Avengers: Endgame, leaves Earth to “take care” of “somet things” and, in the finale, he returns with a surprise in store – he has a son named Skaar.
Skaar’s arrival has been met with happiness by fans who have been wanting World War Hulk to be introduced, and believe this to be a step in the right direction.
This is largely due to the fact that a large chunk of Marvel Comics’ World War Hulk storyline takes pkace on the planet Sakaar, and this is where Hulk absconded to.
One possible tease that fans have picked up on in the She-Hulk finale arrives during a meta scene that sees Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslaney) – wait for it – tap into the Disney Plus interface and encounter a robot version of Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, named KEVIN.
While speaking to KEVIN, she demands the finale play out in a different way to what the robot had planned. One such demand is that Hulk does not “swoop down from literal outer space to save the day in my story”, to which KEVIN replies: “But Bruce is supposed to return to explain what he was doing...”
When Jennifer says, “We don’t need to hear any of that,” KEVIN says: “But we were going to introduce...” Jennifer cuts him off again, telling him: “Save it for the movie.” Later, when Hulk returns, he says: “I know I’ve been away on Sakaar for a while – I’ll tell you all about it.”
Were these lines a sly confirmation of World War Hulk?
Ruffalo himself acknowledged his departure earlier in the series to be a possible set up for the introduction of World War Hulk, telling Variety: “It certainly does suggest that. There has been some conversations about what happened in the two years where Hulk abandoned Banner and the Avengers [on Sakaar], and the emergence of Smart Hulk, which hasn’t ever fully been answered. I think maybe we’ve given four sentences to that time period since then. It’s really an interesting, exciting part of the Hulk story and Banner story.
“I do think that the trip to Sakaar is a good place to start and what that means to the idea of what the fans have been asking for – this idea of Planet Hulk or World War Hulk or just the journey that Banner and Hulk have to make to come to peace with each other. That’s really interesting to me, and I do feel like there is some interest in exploring that down the line.”
She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law is available to stream on Disney Plus.
