MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR “SHE-HULK” EPISODE TWO.
Whilst Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner/Hulk appeared in the first two episodes of Marvel’s “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” series, he isn’t the focus of the show, which is partly why he left relatively quickly.
Speaking with EW about Banner’s exit, head writer Jessica Gao revealed that the character’s going off on a side adventure to both put Jennifer (Tatiana Maslaney) in the spotlight, and a more basic function – to save money on visual effects:
“As far as Bruce leaving, we really were just looking for a convenient way to make sure that everybody knew this is Jen’s show, and it’s not going to be about Bruce… and we just wanted to make sure people weren’t expecting to see Bruce every single episode hanging out with her because frankly, we can’t afford it.”
In a separate interview with TV Line, Gao says the writers opted to put in a connection to Sakaar and Hulk’s time in “Thor: Ragnarok” as opposed to some other upcoming Marvel project, saying that the choice doesn’t mean there are big plans in store for a return to Sakaar. It doesn’t rule it out either:
“I think it kind of opens up the possibility if Marvel chooses to, to do something with that, to pick up that story. If they wanted.”
Ruffalo has previously expressed a desire for Marvel to adapt some of the most famed storylines from the comics involving his character. He tells Variety:
“There have 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 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.”
New episodes of “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” arrive each Thursday on the Disney+ service with singer Megan Thee Stallion’s involvement in an upcoming episode of the series recently confirmed by The Cut.
