Kevin Feige encouraged the She-Hulk: Attorney at Law finale's criticisms of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She-Hulk aimed to be a biting satire of not only comic book culture in general, but of the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself. While Jennifer Walters, played by Tatiana Maslany, came to with her newfound Hulk powers, courtesy of cousin Bruce Banner, she also struggled with her desire to continue to be a high-profile lawyer while also being relied upon as a superhero. Similarly, while the show explored the confines of the 30-minute procedural lawyer comedy, it also had time to include MCU characters such as Wong from Doctor Strange and Abomination from The Incredible Hulk.
Ultimately, the fourth wall of She-Hulk was broken wide open in the final episode, when Walters herself escapes from the Disney+ menu and wanders onto the studio's lot where she confronts the writers, and eventually comes face to face with the show's creator. However, instead of featuring a cameo from Feige, the show concocted an all-knowing AI called K.E.V.I.N., which explains to Walters how pre-meditated her show is, despite Walters' concerns. The sequence is a fun way not only of playing with meta-textual humor, as the original comic book series did repeatedly, but airing out some real-world criticisms of the MCU. It's a risky sequence, one that audiences are now learning was approved from the top down.
In an exclusive interview with Screen Rant, She-Hulk Attorney at Law executive producer Kat Coiro revealed that not only was Kevin Feige receptive to the K.E.V.I.N. twist in the show's finale, he pushed the show to hit harder. Coiro goes into detail about the studio head's reaction to the Episode 9 reveal, as well as how that factors into what she enjoys most about the culture of the MCU. Read the full excerpt below:
"I mean, Kevin Feige has a lot to do with the existence of K-E-V-I-N. And it's funny because I was probably the most nervous about throwing the Marvel stuff under the bus and poking fun at Kevin. And to my great shock and surprise, he was the one who was like, "No, this is great. This is fun. And go further."
I think it speaks to what makes Marvel so special, which is that they are self-deprecating. Nothing is precious. And they're so connected to the audience. Anything negative you can lob at them; they know what you're saying. And this kind of goes one step ahead of anybody who's got criticisms."
Why Kevin Feige Can Allow The MCU To Make Fun of Itself
Feige's free-range given to the She-Hulk writers to bash his franchise a bit is more striking when you realize how far the show went. So much of the sequence acts as a laundry list of criticisms fans have had about the MCU to this point, including the over-reliance on tying in projects to preexisting stars and characters, the insistence on reusing the same plots and clichés, and diluting projects with studio-mandated changes that tamper with visions of creatives. Cheekily, Walters herself alludes to the expensive quality of the She-Hulk CGI, as well as the impending arrival of the X-Men into the MCU. It's a wild, uncontrollable, irony-destroying sequence that would be an immense risk for any other studio or franchise.
However, the episode, and Feige's insistence on keeping the criticisms intact, speak to the studio exec's transparency and honesty in running one of the biggest franchises in cinema history. From the very beginning, the MCU films have set themselves apart from other franchise superhero films by not taking themselves too seriously, and devoting themselves to the fun tone of the comic books they're based off of. This strong but not impenetrable enjoyable through-line has allowed for characters like She-Hulk, and eventually Deadpool, to poke fun at the genre's conventions while also cementing another exciting installment of said genre. Ultimately, with g off on the foundation-breaking finale of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Feige simply confirms that he knows a great idea when he hears one.