Marvel Studios' She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is taking the opportunity to expand on the MCU's bright future while also including a couple of unexpected nods to the past. The biggest of these surprises came with Tim Roth returning to play the classic villain Emil Blonsky/Abomination, a role he's only played once prior to now in 2008's The Incredible Hulk.
Warning - the rest of this article contains spoilers for Episode 3 of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
She-Hulk has changed things around for Blonsky, however, as Jennifer Walters has signed on to be his lawyer to fight for his parole after his rampage in Harlem more than a decade ago.
Of course, that ended up being complicated by his escape from a high-security prison to fight in an underground fight club with the Sorcerer Supreme Wong, a scene that was first shown in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But thanks to Wong's testimony and Jen's top-notch legal expertise, the seemingly reformed villain was granted conditional parole and released from prison.
Even with that huge development, however, there is still a very real chance that a man with that much power could use that power the wrong way and go back to being a villain once more. And according to Tim Roth himself, that's exactly what makes playing this role so much fun for him.
She-Hulk Star on Mystery Behind Abomination
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law star Tim Roth teased whether the Abomination is still a villain in the MCU or not.
He looked back to the way Marvel let him "play and fool around" with his role on set, always toeing the line between good and evil with the mystery of his intentions still very much in play:
“They let me improvise and play and fool around and dance on the edge of, ‘Is he [good], though?’ That kind of thing. That was always the question: ’Is he telling the truth here? And where are we going?’”
When asked if Blonsky is truly being honest about his remorse for his actions, Roth kept mum on the answer, hinting that fans will have to wait to see exactly what being imprisoned for so many years has done to the character:
“That’s the fun. I can’t answer that for you. He’s been kept in maximum security solitary confinement for a very long time. What does that do to someone? Where does that lead him? And who is this guy now? Should we have a leap of faith in him or not?”
In the end, Roth only hopes that fans are surprised by what's coming, indicating that there is so much more to the Abomination's story that hasn't been revealed yet:
“That’s for you to find out. The mischief is just all the way in there, and there’s more to come. You’ll see. I know what’s coming. I hope we get away with it, I can only say that.”
Roth also looked back at the Abomination's role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, admitting that he didn't “really know anything about it" when that movie was released. Not one to watch his own movies, he revealed that he only spent "just a few minutes in the middle of COVID with them" working his part out in a studio:
“I haven’t seen [Shang-Chi], I didn’t know anything about it at all,” he says. “I generally don’t watch the things that I’m in. I spent just a few minutes in the middle of COVID with them in a sound studio. It was fun.”
To close, he added his thoughts on the fact that this is his first time working with Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk after Edward Norton first played the role in The Incredible Hulk with him in 2008.
He isn't sure if it made the final cut, but he revealed that there's "a slight bit of confusion" during a moment he filmed with Ruffalo where the actor change is acknowledged for a second. Roth also praised both Ruffalo and Norton as actors, sharing that he's wanted to work with Ruffalo for a long time before it came to fruition in She-Hulk:
“It was great. I don’t know if it’s in there [in the episode], but there is a slight bit of confusion when I see him. We riffed on that a lot when we were shooting but I don’t know if any of it made it in. ‘You really put on weight,’ that kind of stuff. It’s very funny. But listen, I got to work with two great actors, that’s the bottom line. Ed’s fantastic, and Mark Ruffalo, I’ve always wanted to work with Mark Ruffalo, and I got to do it. That’s pretty much a bonus. I’ll take that.”
Is the Abomination Still a Villain or Not?
The MCU is no stranger to villains that have reformed themselves, whether it be Tom Hiddleston's Loki since the end of Phase 1 or Sebastian Stan's continuing journey as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier. But this time around, there is still reason to believe that Emil Blonsky is truly walking down the straight and narrow path once again.
Trailer footage has already revealed that he'll change into his Abomination form at some point later in the series, which would be a direct violation of his parole that was agreed upon at the end of his hearing in Episode 3. But there's also the confirmed plot point that involved him running some kind of villain support group with reformed baddies, which could also lend credence to him having turned over a new leaf.
The best part about the mystery, however, is that Roth is adamant about making sure that fans find out what happens as the series continues its run.
The Abomination will be only one of a few major players to pay attention to over the coming weeks, which will also likely revisit Benedict Wong's Wong before bringing back Charlie Cox's Daredevil down the road. And while Jameela Jamil's Titania may have been touted as the show's lead villain, Roth has a chance to eventually cause some more mayhem of his own if the Abomination is let loose.
The first three episodes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law are now available to stream on Disney+
