At least some of the backlash aimed at She-Hulk: Attorney at Law appeared to have been a result of the titular hero being, well, a "she." However, there were also some very valid complaints about the quality of the Disney+ TV show's visual effects, particularly in the second half of the season.
Variety has now shed new light on what went wrong, revealing that Disney CEO Bob Iger was "apoplectic" about Marvel Studios' widespread VFX troubles upon his return to the company.
That was at least part of the reason Victoria Alonso ended up being fired, with Disney "incensed that quality control on its Marvel productions was plummeting, particularly on the ever-expanding TV front." The pandemic also didn't help matters, of course, and neither did the fact Marvel Studios had essentially doubled or tripled its output of content post-Infinity Saga.
The trade reveals that many final effects for both She-Hulk and WandaVision were added after their respective streaming debuts, and while much of the blame continues to be laid at Alonso's feet, it seems the issues run deeper than that.
A lack of oversight on script development has caused a lost list of problems, including a last-minute decision to shift She-Hulk's origin story from the eighth episode to the premiere. That left VFX artists scrambling to finish the scenes in time.
"The so-called bad VFX we see was because of half-baked scripts," an unnamed person involved with the show tells the site. "That is not Victoria. That is Kevin. And even above Kevin. Those issues should be addressed in preproduction. The timeline is not allowing the Marvel executives to sit with the material."
All this had done little to help Marvel Studios' bottom line with an episode of She-Hulk costing as much as $25 million (significantly more than an episode of Game of Thrones during its final season, for example).
Thankfully, these are problems which the MCU's head honchos are addressing, something that's evident from Loki. The visuals in that series have been flawless thus far, making it feel like a return to form for the beleaguered studio.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law follows the hero as she navigates the complicated life of a single, 30-something attorney (Tatiana Maslany) who also happens to be a green 6-foot-7-inch superpowered hulk.
The nine-episode series welcomes a host of MCU vets, including Mark Ruffalo as Smart Hulk, Tim Roth as Emil Blonsky/the Abomination, and Benedict Wong as Wong. Along with Matthews, the supporting cast also includes Ginger Gonzaga, Josh Segarra, Jameela Jamil, Jon Bass, and Renée Elise Goldsberry.
All episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are now streaming on Disney+.