Much of the discussion about the premiere episode of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” has revolved around a running joke throughout the episode involving the sex life of Captain America.
In the episode, cousins Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) get into an ongoing discussion regarding whether Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a virgin.
Initially hesitant to discuss his colleague’s private life, Jennifer wears him down until Bruce eventually reveals the First Avenger lost his v-card to a girl in 1943 on the USO tour.
According to showrunner Jessica Gao whilst speaking with io9, it was Marvel chief Kevin Feige who not only approved the whole gag but was the one who settled on the specific details:
“Kevin was really into that joke, and he actually was the one who volunteered the answer to that question. I couldn’t believe that we got to definitively settle that issue once and for all.”
Marvel, in general, has notably avoided the topic of sexuality across much of the MCU, and Gao explains why the show decided to take on the topic here and how they considered the conversations they and other Marvel fans are having:
“Our philosophy was really just like let’s just do things until they tell us we can’t because if you start asking for permission too much, then you’re giving people a chance to say no.
What have we always wanted to see in the MCU? There are some things like Captain America’s virginity that really surprised us that it kept going.”
One thing you won’t see, despite the writers hoping to do it, was to bring in characters from the Spider-Man universe. Gao tells TV Line:
“We knew innately that Spider-Man was a no-go. We thought maybe some of the other characters in Spider-Man might be fun to bring into our world, but we were told pretty early on that that was impossible, so we didn’t really go too far down the road. We just had a couple of Spider-Man supernerds in our room who dare to dream!”
“She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law” is airing its remaining eight episodes weekly on the Disney+ service until October 13th.
