She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was a very different sort of Marvel show on Disney+. The series had a much lighter tone, including fourth-wall breaking moments that went completely meta by the end, taking aim at Marvel Studios itself. It’s not surprising to hear that Marvel did have some concerns about some elements of the show, but it turns out what really made everybody nervous wasn't the Kevin Feige jokes, it was the sex.
Not only does Jennifer Walters have sex in She-Hulk, but the fact that she has sex, and wants to have sex, is a regular part of what the series deals with. Director Kat Coiro recently told The Wrap that there was “more fear” around the sexual element of the show than there was making fun of the boss. She explains…
It was definitely a part of our conversations, because you can’t make a story about a woman in her 30s navigating modern life and not address sex. And I do think that the media is strangely more prude when it comes to the female point of view in regards to sex. And, you know, we’ve got Iron Man doing a lot of things, but then there were all these conversations and there was a lot more fear around her sex life than there was about making fun of Marvel. But we just kept saying, this is her story, and this is her truth, and we’ll handle it in a way that’s light.
As Coiro says here, sex isn’t an entirely foreign concept in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Robert Rowney Jr.’s Tony Stark takes a reporter to bed in the first Iron Man. We also had a somewhat racy scene last year in Eternals. However, it is rarer to see sex from a female perspective at all, nevermind in the MCU, which is still working toward more focus on female characters in general. And by virtue of the fact that She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is a comedy, that means the sex is handled in a light and fun way.
For what it’s worth, it does not appear that Marvel stood in the way of letting Kat Coiro depict sex the way she wanted to in the series. She says she had no interest in pushing it too far, but she also didn’t want to treat it like it was anything inappropriate. The relationship between She-Hulk and Daredevil becoming a prime example. She continues…
I never wanted to go too far with the sex, but I also don’t want sex to be taboo, even for young people. And so it was always finding that balance. And I think the tongue-in-cheek element is really important. Like, when Jen and Daredevil [get together], I like ending it on that little pan over their costumes. That was kind of an homage to the 2000s rom coms tropes, but also with something totally new because it was batons and helmets, instead of clothing. And it is, it’s very suggestive, but it’s also, you know, accessible for all ages, which I like.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, did strike a good balance. It was never afraid of sex, but it approached the topic in a way that would be appropriate for any fan of Marvel movies and TV.
