It’s been a few years since She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, the Disney+ series that introduced Jennifer Walters to a whole new audience. The long-running character was brought to life by Emmy-winning actress Tatiana Maslany, and fans have been curious to see when and how she might return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe… and lately, that question has gone into a wild new territory.
Comments Maslany made during a recent appearance on Comedy Bang! Bang! have caught on like wildfire, with fans interpreting them to mean that the actress turned down the opportunity to return as She-Hulk in Avengers: Doomsday. The “reason” she gives builds upon (and pokes fun at) various false rumors that have been spread online about her since She-Hulk premiered, trying to argue that she was cut from 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine, got mad at star Ryan Reynolds, and proceeded to sue Disney over it.
“Nope,” Maslany began. “Disney has approached me to play She-Hulk again. Guys, I said no. Because I just did. This is the facts. They’re out there. You can read the articles about it. I was really mad at them for kicking me out of [Deadpool & Wolverine]. I was just mad. I’m woke. It’s woke feminist stuff… I was like, ‘How dare you cast a woman in this role? That’s disgusting. I’m embarrassed to even be here.’ They really wanted me to be in Doomsday, Avengers-style, or whatever. I turned them down. I’m confirming it here.”
Hey nong, man!
As a lifelong fan of Maslany, the character of She-Hulk, and Comedy Bang! Bang!, let me explain. The podcast itself is a comedic interview show, where host Scott Aukerman is joined by real-life celebrities and comedians playing characters to improvise a conversation. It has built decades of lore that exists outside of the realm of reality, populated with plenty of fictionalized versions of events, characters, or celebrities (regardless of whether they’re dead or alive in real life). For example: the episode Maslany made these comments on also includes appearances from Carl Tart playing long-dead R&B legend Barry White, and Tawny Newsome playing an anthropomorphized version of the Hollywood sign.
Maslany has been guest-starring on Comedy Bang! Bang!, both as herself and as characters in larger bits, since long before she was even cast as She-Hulk. But given how often she has appeared on the show and its various spinoffs, and how ravenous Marvel fans are for any new information, any comments she’s made on there about She-Hulk have been taken by some at face value, regardless of the actual content of them.
In 2020, when Maslany’s casting was reported on but hadn’t been confirmed by Marvel Studios, her attempts at dodging the subject on the spinoff podcast We Have to Stop Talking TMNT on CBB, led to her coining the nickname “She-Shredder.” In 2021, on the spinoff podcast Scott Hasn’t Seen, she joked that She-Hulk: Attorney at Law would have musical numbers set to “It’s Not Easy Being Green” and Madonna’s rendition of “Fever.” (Given She-Hulk’s wacky and fourth-wall-breaking history in the comics, that didn’t seem completely out of the realm of possibility at the time.)
In a CBB episode in the spring of 2024, Maslany joked about her character’s return in what was then called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, while making it clear that she had absolutely no idea who or what Kang even was. Later that same year, after Deadpool & Wolverine had been released and the clickbait rumor mill had started, she poked fun at the whole ordeal when returning to the show in October. To further hammer the point home that these rumors were nonsense, the episode culminated with comedian Vic Michaelis playing a fake Marvel executive named Luzi Brockheimer, who simultaneously wanted to announce dozens of random projects, convince Maslany not to sue the company, and get her dog back from Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige.
When I listened to Maslany’s latest Comedy Bang! Bang! episode earlier this week, I knew that whatever jokes she made about this fake She-Hulk saga would probably circulate around online. She even acknowledges it repeatedly during the episode itself… because it has already happened with every single previous instance I just named. It’s unsurprising that her “refusal” to appear in Doomsday has been picked up and taken at face value, but it’s also kind of hilarious, given the fact that it originates from a fictional universe filled with so many long-running and ridiculous bits that are almost impossible to describe out of context. Time will only tell if Maslany is actually in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars… but maybe don’t go hunting for that information in the same place that we hear about Bob Ducca’s latest ailments or Hot Dog’s continued efforts to get a certain band in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Whether or not Maslany is in Avengers: Doomsday, it will be released exclusively in theaters on December 18th.
(featured image: Disney+)
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