Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany has landed the title role in Marvel’s upcoming series She-Hulk, according to Deadline. The news comes one day after it was announced that the studio had recruited Kat Coiro (Dead to Me) to direct the pilot and several episodes for the Disney+ series.
Maslany will play Jennifer Walters, the cousin of Dr. Bruce Banner, a.k.a. the Hulk, who was first introduced into the Marvel Comics universe in The Savage She-Hulk #1 (February 1980). A lawyer, Walters is shot and seriously wounded by mobsters on the same day that her cousin visits her to reveal that he is also the big green guy.
With no one else available that matches her blood type, Banner gives her an emergency transfusion — but his gamma-irradiated blood and her own anger turn Walters into the title creature for the first time when the gangsters return to finish the job. Unlike her cousin, Walters learns to control her transformation and decides to spend most of her time looking green — including while she continues to practice law.
She-Hulk was the last major character created by Stan Lee during his Marvel tenure, and he only wrote the first issue of The Savage She-Hulk, which ran for 25 issues. Walters — whose appearance was less monstrous than that of Banner — would later join the Avengers, the Defenders, and the Fantastic Four, while also getting another standalone series, The Sensational She-Hulk, for which many issues were written and drawn by John Byrne.
Her most recent appearances were in the all-female Avengers spinoff A-Force as well as the standalone Hulk book, which ended in 2018. She’s shown up in a variety of animated Marvel TV adventures as well.
With Maslany, Marvel gets an actress of significant range whose portrayal of nearly a dozen different clones during five seasons of Orphan Black earned the Canadian performer a Primetime Emmy Award as well as Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations.
Maslany has recently starred in HBO’s Perry Mason, while her film credits include Destroyer opposite Nicole Kidman, Stronger with Jake Gyllenhaal, and others.
She-Hulk is one of several TV shows Marvel has in development or production for Disney+. WandaVision is tentatively slated to premiere before the end of 2020, while The Falcon and The Winter Soldier just resumed production after it was halted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Other Marvel shows in the works include Loki, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight.
There’s no word on when production will begin on She-Hulk but Rick and Morty scribe Jessica Gao is already leading the writers room. It’s also possible that the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Hulk, Mark Ruffalo, could turn up in the show, although that has yet to be confirmed.