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'She-Hulk' creator on that big Daredevil twist
Superhero skills and law degrees aren’t all that Jennifer Walters and Matt Murdock have in common.
Matt Murdock and Jennifer Walters may not be actual law partners, but in this week’s episode of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, they’re definitely a pair of lawyers on the same superhero team.
After delighting fans with his surprising (but brief) return in last year’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, Charlie Cox has finally re-entered the MCU as Daredevil with much more than just a tantalizing cameo. Marvel’s Man Without Fear showed up in a big way in the latest episode of She-Hulk, bonding with Jennifer (Tatiana Maslany) in, well, more ways than one.
**SPOILER WARNING! Spoilers below for Season 1, Episode 8 of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law below!**
In the show’s 8th episode, Matt Murdock swoops in on Jen’s LA smashing grounds, leveraging his sensory-heightened Hell’s Kitchen lawyering skills to defend Luke Jacobson (Griffin Matthews) after Jennifer brings a case against the sartorial superhero outfitter over a supposedly faulty suit. Though she’s deflated after Murdock wins the case, Jen runs into him later at a bar — and Matt gives his fellow barrister a fresh perspective on Jen’s whole double-identity headache.
“I think you’re in a unique position to do some real good,” Matt advises. “The way I see it, Jen Walters can use the law when society fails. And She-Hulk can help people when the law fails.”
Matt’s way with words sparks a definite chemistry between the two, and they eventually end up back at her place with — gulp — steamy romance on their minds. The fast-acting rapport is a definite vibe, one series creator and head writer Jessica Gao says evokes the competitive romantic feel of snippy-dialogue movies from Hollywood’s film noir golden age.
“I really wanted their dynamic to have this kind of Howard Hawks, very quick back and forth where they're attracted to each other, but they have to kind of poke and prod at each other,” Gao explained in a recent Marvel feature. “…He just seemed like the right dude for her. It was like, OK, no matter what we do, all roads should lead to them hooking up.”
With his own new Disney+ series in the works, Daredevil’s already on the path toward a full MCU reemergence after Cox’s time behind the mask — including one of the most epic hallway fight scenes ever filmed — ended in 2018 at Netflix. Though his hugely-hyped return almost stole this week’s episode out from under Jennifer herself (there’s even a fun nod to the Netflix series’ hall fight, before She-Hulk crashes in to stop it), Gao says there’s no danger of Matt Murdock really upstaging our big green hero. After all, there’ll be plenty of time for Daredevil to do his own thing soon enough.
“We have to keep reminding people that this is Jen's show, this is She-Hulk's show,” said Gao. “Everything in the show is like, how can we either subvert a trope or defy expectations or ground something in funny reality. That's kind of the ethos of the show. So of course, it was just natural for this show, being so meta, that we would acknowledge and tease the classic Daredevil hallway fight. But then, of course, we would have to undercut it with our girl, She-Hulk.”
With the series’ first season now in the home stretch, the book’s almost shut on She-Hulk’s opening chapter. Catch the season finale on Oct. 13, when She-Hulk: Attorney at Law rests its case at Disney+.
Looking for some sci-fi and fantasy? Head over to Peacock for films like Firestarter, Constantine, Twilight, Creepshow, Resident Evil, and Independence Day.
