Peacock has found the perfect solution to Marvel Studios' She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 2 problem. Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany joined the MCU as Bruce Banner's cousin Jennifer Walters in She-Hulk, which transformed her into a fourth-wall-breaking lawyer superhero across a nine-episode legal comedy. Sadly, She-Hulk was instantly panned for eight major reasons, including its supposedly cringy humor, mediocre storytelling, woke messaging, and poor CGI.
Reportedly, She-Hulk cost a massive $225 million to produce its nine 30-minute episodes, and even with that blockbuster-level budget, the Disney+ series received immense criticism for its CGI. Obviously, a price tag north of $200 million is tough to justify for another streaming show, let alone a 30-minute comedy.
Tatiana Maslany herself previously revealed she "[doesn't] think" that She-Hulk Season 2 is likely to happen in large part due to its finances, noting, "I think we blew our budget, and Disney was like, 'No thanks.'"
While backlash and viewership may have been factors in She-Hulk Season 2 not moving forward, its ridiculous budget was seemingly the chief concern. That is no easy problem to fix, as a series with a CGI, gamma-infused main superhero will always be expensive to develop, unless it takes some inspiration from a major NBCUniversal and Peacock franchise: Seth MacFarlane's Ted.
To give some backstory, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane directed and starred in the two R-rated Ted comedy movies, released in 2012 and 2015. The comedy icon voiced Ted, a foul-mouthed talking teddy bear who was wished to life by Mark Walhberg's John Bennett as a child, forming their lifelong friendship.
Sadly, Ted 3 never happened due to declining box office results, but Peacock continued John and Ted's story in 2024 with a six-episode live-action series. Being a talking teddy bear, Ted was, of course, once again a CGI creation, which gave the show a costly $10 million per episode budget.
Even with the expensive prequel returning for Season 2, Peacock is eager to continue the story after the second movie and is moving forward with Ted: The Animated Series. The upcoming show will replace Ted 3 in animated form, bringing back the movies' A-list talent, Wahlberg, MacFarlane, and Amanda Seyfried.
The option of pivoting from live-action to animation for a sequel, not a reboot, is one that Marvel Studios could take lessons from for She-Hulk Season 2. Not only would this reduce costs and allow more episodes to be made, but also open doors for more A-list talent to bring their MCU character to She-Hulk in a guest role.
She-Hulk: The Animated Series Has Endless Avengers Crossover Potential
Some of She-Hulk's best moments came through her crossovers with other Marvel characters, such as Tim Blake Nelson's Abomination, Benedict Wong's Wong, Charlie Cox's Daredevil, and Mark Ruffalo's Hulk. These connections ranged across both sides of the courtroom, fighting crime on the streets, attending family gatherings, and even, in one case, some alone time in the bedroom.
Director Kat Coiro appeared more than aware that the "exciting... premise of superhuman law" was among She-Hulk's biggest strengths, as it lends itself to "infinite possibilities." She even pointed out that any past, present, or future MCU character could appear in She-Hulk, and it would feel "completely organic."
Marvel Animation proved through Marvel Zombies and What If...? that even some of the MCU's biggest stars could be persuaded to voice their heroes on Disney+. As such, an animated She-Hulk could have far more of these exciting, crowd-pleasing moments, bringing in characters and actors who may be more challenging to include in a live-action show without ballooning the budget.
The writers' room noted before they were "really bummed out" that they couldn't use Spider-Man in Season 1 due to Sony owning his live-action rights. That said, as Marvel Studios still holds the animated TV rights to the wall-crawler, there's no reason he couldn't return for a follow-up if it took a different form.
Ultimately, an animated She-Hulk series may be best suited to swerve world-ending disasters or MCU tie-ins, focusing on its own episodic comedy. That's not to say she can't still make the jump to live-action in other Marvel Studios projects, most notably for her reportedly "fairly significant" role in Avengers: Doomsday.
