She-Hulk: Jessica Gao Deconstructs Meta Ending, Talks Feige Influence

One of the most refreshing shows on Disney+ is Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which is about as self-aware of its existence and the universe it resides in, especially in the season finale “Whose Show Is This?” Throughout the series, our hero, Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk, played by Tatiana Maslany, regularly breaks the fourth wall as the character talks to the audience when something incredulous and cliché happens, which the finale takes to a whole other level. This is your major spoilers warning as head writer Jessica Gao spills the beans about the episode’s major plot points.

Jessica Gao’s She-Hulk Cameo

As the initial finale plays out, She-Hulk infiltrates the incel group known as Intelligencia, which she finds out is run by Todd Phelps (Jon Bass). He also has blood stolen from Jen into a Hulk formula he proceeds to inject himself with to give him powers. As the ridiculousness and familiar plot MCU plot points reach a fever pitch, She-Hulk finally has enough and decides to find her way into the writers’ room to air her grievances. When asked about Gao’s own cameo, “I was in the background. I was dragged kicking and screaming into that cameo, ’cause I did not originally plan to be in it,” she said during a conversation with Deadline Hollywood. “That’s why we cast an actor to play writer Jessica. But the night before, we realized we needed one more background extra. And because it was during the height of Covid, there wouldn’t have been enough time to test a background person to have them shoot the next day. So I stepped in.” After getting laughed off by writers for demanding to see “Kevin,” which audiences assume is Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, Jen finds a robot version of KEVIN instead reminiscent of 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded.

“Oh, no. Not at all [about how the original ending played out],” Goa said. “It was such a long journey to get to that point. I must have written like 20 versions of a finale because when we got to the finale, I very mistakenly thought, “I got to have my fun. We’ve got to do something different. I have to do the Marvel ending.” Marvel does things a certain way, you know, they follow certain beats, and this is the point where I have to start falling in line and doing that. Like, that’s really what I thought. Nobody was telling me this, this is just what I thought. So I tried to live up to that and did so many different versions of what would be a typical Marvel ending, and none of it felt right. It was Kevin, human Kevin, who said: ‘There’s no reason to do that. Why try to force this when it’s not what it’s supposed to be? This is not a Marvel movie, so why are you trying to make a Marvel movie ending when that’s not what it is? This show has been completely different from the beginning. This show was completely different than anything we’ve ever done.’It was so freeing to have him not only give me permission but to give me encouragement, to really push me to continue doing something different. That’s why it’s so great working with human Kevin because he is open to things like that.”