Bringing She-Hulk to the screen took a lot of work – much of which was focused on figuring out the right balance of CG and practical techniques to credibly bring Tatiana Maslany's Jennifer Walters to life. Director Kat Coiro says they spent months on the design before going into production, then refined it during the post-production process.
"It really is taking the design and asking, ‘Are we getting those facial expressions and those nuances of reaction?’" she explains to SFX magazine in the new issue, featuring Prey on the cover. "That is where all the time comes into play, just really honing in."
She’s aware that fan reaction to the first trailer revealing the CG was mixed, but says that they expected it. "I think a lot of the reactions have to do with the fact that she is so different than anything we’ve seen," Coiro says. "When you think of Thanos or Hulk, they have a grisliness and a harshness and a bulkiness to them that is just so different. And when you just see a little pop of her, it’s almost shocking because we haven’t seen it before."
Coiro says she’s worked closely with Victoria Alonso, the President of Physical, Post Production, VFX, and Animation at Marvel Studios, throughout the post process to finesse the She-Hulk look. "She has such an incredible eye, and to me a lot of that eye comes from this very emotional gut reaction that she has, which is backed by decades of technical expertise," she explains.
"What I think is so cool is she keeps this real emotional reaction to the VFX. Watching her work has taught me so much about why something works and why it doesn’t; why does it go into uncanny valley? And it always comes back to the actor’s performance and capturing that."
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She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is on Disney Plus from 17 August. For much more on the series, check out the current issue of SFX Magazine with Predator prequel Prey on the cover. For even more from SFX, sign up to the newsletter, sending all the latest exclusives straight to your inbox.
