‘She-Hulk’: Jessica Gao Says Hulk’s New Adventure Was To Underline It’s Jennifer Walters Show, Plus Save On VFX Costs

*Be warned there are minor spoilers ahead for “She-Hulk”*

While Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner is indeed part of Marvel’s new “She-Hulk” series, he’s not the focus of the Disney+ show. And the creators of “She-Hulk: Attorney Of Law” want you to know that. So, if you’ve watched all the most recent episodes of the series, you know that the Hulk has been recently written out of the show. Why? Well, for two reasons.

While chatting with Entertainment Weekly, head writer Jessica Gao explained that Banner’s “side adventure” was really cooked up because they wanted audiences to understand it was her show and to save costs on all that VFX. This would harken back to previous comments from the writer about having to scale back She-Hulk scenes due to costs which obviously became an issue. 

“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.”

READ MORE: Head Writer Jessica Gao Was Asked To Scale-Back She-Hulk VFX Scenes & Details Failed’ Black Widow’ Pitch

At the end of the second episode of “She-Hulk,” Bruce seems to have met up with that spaceship from Sakaar that had caused the accident leading to Walters getting her powers, and is now heading back to that alien planet which was featured in “Thor: Ragnarok.” Bruce had spent at least two years of Earth time there with the Hulk persona taking the reins (time moves slower on Saakar compared to Earth), and many fans assumed this was Marvel teasing big plans, but that doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case. 

In an interview with TVLine, Gao suggested the writers decided to put the Sakaar/’Ragnarok’ connection and not Marvels. “But also, 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,” she said. Though in a separate interview with The Direct, Gao suggested Banner has unfinished business on Sakaar. “God knows what Hulk got up to in the years he was there, so he’s gotta go back and handle some off-world things that happened during that time.”

Ruffalo recently told Variety he would be keen to see Marvel adapt “World War Hulk” or explore what he had been doing off-screen in the future. The actor has been really keen to continue playing the character and getting a chance to do a solo adventure using various comic book stories, even having him face Wolverine (the mutant first appeared in a “Hulk” comic book). 

“There has 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 think maybe we’ve given four sentences to that time period since then. It’s really an interesting, exciting part of the Hulk story and Banner story. 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.”

“World War Hulk” is a cosmic story from the comics where Hulk’s wife/queen, Caiera The Oldstrong, is killed, and he blames Earth for her death, leading to an invasion led by Hulk alongside his equally powerful cohorts (Korg and Miek had been part of that group) to get revenge against humanity. 

Hypothetically, Marvel could kill two birds with one stone by potentially linking those lost years off-screen on Saakar and between the two “Avengers” installments on Earth (spending time with Tony Stark was mentioned) by potentially having Banner moving back and forth between the two planets. However, Marvel hasn’t mentioned future film plans for a new solo “Hulk” film. There have been rumors that previous headaches with Universal Pictures, who once owned the distribution rights to solo “Hulk” movies, are a thing of the past, but that’s never been fully confirmed as of yet.

New “She-Hulk” episodes arrive every Thursday on Disney+.