The finale of She-Hulk (aptly titled, “Who’s this show for?”), saw her breaking the fourth wall in a very “savage” way. The break was truly witty and creative, and will surely have huge implications for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It all happened when She-Hulk decided to end her streak, in her own way. What was it exactly? Let’s explore.
Breaking the fourth wall
She-Hulk’s Fourth Broken Wall
During the finale, a lot of things happened at the same time. Todd is revealed to be the main antagonist, Todd transforms into Hulk-Todd, Hulk-Todd attacks She-Hulk, Titania appears, Hulk comes out of nowhere and begins to fight the Abomination, and in between all the chaos, She-Hulk remains confused. Unhappy with how the finale was going, She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany) decides to break the fourth wall for MCU.
The way she does it has left Marvel fans’ jaws open. She interrupts the scene and smashes the Disney+ Marvel home screen and swings and dives into the Marvel Assembled tile. Marvel Assembled is a Marvel documentary series that basically covers the behind-the-scenes action of various Marvel movies and TV shows.
The writers room
The writers room
She-Hulk wants to meet the “geniuses” who came up with the idea for her show’s finale. Once in Marvel’s Los Angeles office, she enters the “writers room” for the She-Hulk TV show. There, she finds all the head writers discussing the different possibilities they have for a potential storyline for season 2. One of them even goes so far as to state, “How about the whole season 2 is a long dream sequence?
To this seemingly insane idea, other writers gave their nods. She-Hulk realizes that these guys aren’t the real minds behind her show’s final story, and she asks to speak to Kevin (Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios). The writers ignore his request and tell him no one can meet Kevin (which, surprisingly, was spelled as an acronym KEVIN in the subtitles). She-Hulk doesn’t listen to them and storms out of their room.
Iron Man Armors
Iron Man Armors
She-Hulk then shows up outside the Marvel chief’s office and is greeted by a receptionist. However, if you look closely, you can see various Iron Man armors in the background. It instantly reminds me of the opening sequences of Iron Man III, where Iron Man (aka Tony Stark) takes off his various costumes. After Iron Man passed away in Avengers: Endgame, fans really missed their favorite armored hero.
Therefore, one can always feel a giant missing hole in later projects. At a time like this, this kind of subtle nod to the beloved character is nothing short of a treat for Marvel fans. The receptionist asks him to sign a long and detailed non-disclosure agreement from Marvel. She-Hulk signs it, but to her surprise, instead of calling Kevin’s office, the receptionist sounds the alarm.
Kevin
Kevin
Fighting off a group of not-so-skilled guards, She-Hulk makes her way to Marvel Head’s chamber. Once inside, she’s amazed to see giant LED screens playing scenes from past MCU movies. Expecting to see the head of Marvel – Kevin Feige, she is instead greeted by a robot called KEVIN (also equipped with Kevin Feige’s signature cap). According to him, KEVIN stands for – Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interconnectivity Nexus. The robot was clearly inspired by the look of the main antagonistic robots from classic movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Wall-E.
The robot states that throughout his work he has been deciding the storylines for various Marvel projects and how they should connect to each other. According to KEVIN, this alone is the most advanced AI entertainment algorithm on the planet. It’s clearly a nod to She-Hulk’s regular fourth wall breaks in the comics. In one of them, in particular Sensational She-Hulk #50 (1989), She-Hulk attempts to release comics in the real world and seek a writer for her comics storyline as the original was dead. The comics are freely downloadable by viewers by scanning the QR code present on the door of the Writers’ Room.
Marvel’s VFX and X-Men
When will we get the X-Men
Once face to face with KEVIN, She-hulk complains that she doesn’t want a big messy climactic battle at the end of her show (like other Marvel movies and shows), instead she wants the final she sees matches. KEVIN cuts her in between and asks her to transform into her first Jennifer Walters form, as they had a “tight budget” for VFX. It was a direct shoutout to the many audience complaints about the show’s poor CGI so far. Jennifer and KEVIN in their arguments, also drop subtle hints for upcoming movie projects like – Captain America: New World Order and a potential world war hulk film.
At another point, She-Hulk asks KEVIN, “And when will we get the X-Men?” Saying this, she turns to the camera, winks and gives a thumbs up. She knows the public is dying to hear an answer to that question. Although the AI didn’t answer the question, it was indeed some very clever humor played by the show’s writers. Kudos to them! Since the Fox-Marvel merger and with some recent Marvel developments (the X-Men ’97 animated series and the inclusion of Wolverine and Deadpool in Deadpool 3), fans have been wondering when they’ll see X-Men in the main MCU. Let’s just hope it happens soon enough.
