The season finale of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law ends with Tatiana Maslany’s Jennifer Walters breaking the fourth wall and approaching Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige to rewrite the ending of the show. Feige is portrayed as K.E.V.I.N, an AI computer brain that oversees the creative production of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The quirky turn of events fit right in with the tone of the show and was also used as a tool to address some of the problems and tropes of the MCU. The scene was conceived by head writer Jessica Gao and was approved by Feige without any meddling. However, the MCU mastermind did have one creative note for the AI.
Production Of Tatiana Maslany’s She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
Despite being considered for films and TV shows since the late 80s, the Marvel character She-Hulk finally received her first live-action appearance when Kevin Feige announced at the D23 summit in 2019 the huge list of original TV series that Marvel would be producing for Disney Plus.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law was announced to be part of the studio’s lineup along with many other shows such as Moonknight and Ms. Marvel. Jessica Gao, who was known for her Emmy Award-winning work on Rick and Morty, was hired as the head writer of the show while Tatiana Maslany was cast as the eponymous superhero.
The show was packaged as a legal comedy, following a procedural format with the characters dealing with one case in each episode. Apart from Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner making an appearance as She-Hulk’s cousin, Charlie Cox’s Daredevil also had a cameo, making it his second appearance in the MCU after Spider-Man: No Way Home.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law was mostly received well, with positive responses for its writing and fresh tone, but was heavily criticized for its visual effects work. The series had many comedic moments which had Gao’s signature quirk.
Also read: Avengers: Endgame Could Have Featured a Major Superhero Team – Kevin Feige Stopped it from Happening
Kevin Feige Had One Issue With She-Hulk’s Climax
The ending of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law first starts with hints of a familiar big, CGI climax that has become the trope of MCU films. Tim Roth’s Abomination Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk, and more join a battle that is sure to be a VFX-heavy battle sequence. However, the She-Hulk immediately pauses the battle, breaks the fourth wall, and goes to the Marvel writer’s room to demand a rewrite.
The writers point her to a ‘Kevin’, hinting at Marvel President Kevin Feige, who ends up being an AI robot called K.E.V.I.N or Knowledge Enhanced Visual Interactivity Nexus. There are quips about budgetary constraints, turning She-Hulk back into Jennifer Walters, who demands that her finale be rewritten. After a brief conversation, the AI agrees and She-Hulk returns to her show.
According to the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige was on board with the idea of making him a robot in the Disney Plus series finale. However, he had one issue with the initial idea conceived by head writer Jessica Gao. Gao intended to give K.E.V.I.N a baseball hat, which Feige did not approve. He reportedly said,
“Well, that doesn’t make a lick of sense. Why would a robot wear a hat?”
The scene in the show, despite being too on the nose, is used as a storytelling tool to address many of the concerns and criticisms that the MCU has been receiving regarding its writing, VFX, and more. While the show suggests that the studio is aware of the problems, it seems to be still in the mud as all subsequent series and a few of the films released since have received similar complaints.
