Of the many guest appearances that graced the first season of Marvel’s She-Hulk, the ones featuring Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk were among the most consequential. Banner showed up in much of the premiere, and also the second episode briefly to take a call from Jen, where it was revealed he had been calling her while going somewhere in space. But he hadn’t been seen or mentioned for the rest of the season, at least until the finale rolled around. After that, things…took a turn, and if you haven’t seen the finale, it’s best to turn back now.
“Whose Show is This?” ends with Jen (Tatiana Maslany) breaking the fourth wall to go up to Kevin Feige — or rather, a robot version of the man, hat and all — and effectively call do-over on her own finale. Instead of a CG slugfest that’s come to define every MCU product, Jen makes it so that she, a returning Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), and the Walters family have a Fast & Furious-style cookout. Banner shows up at the last minute, joined by none other than his son, Skaar, as played (albeit without any lines) by Wil Deusner. But before there can be any further explanation, the episode closes on Jen reaffirming that she’d split her life between lawyer and hero.
A brief history lesson on Skaar: created by Greg Pak and John Romita Jr., he is legitimately the son of the Hulk who first appeared in 2007’s What If? Planet Hulk #1. When Hulk was blasted to Sakaar by the Illuminati, the green giant got into a romantic relationship with a Sakaaran named Caiera, which led to the birth of Skaar. Hulk had left the planet by the time of his birth, and Caiera had died, but not before giving birth to twins Skaar and Hiro-Kala. Skaar eventually arrived on Earth, and while it took some time, came to get along with Banner and become a member of the Hulk family.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, lead writer Jessica Gao explained that introducing Skaar came from the desire to end the season on a “big cameo” from the MCU, and later ran up against the very human problem of scheduling and a willingness to actually show up. “So then we thought it would be really cool if we could tease a new character at the end, either as the last moment of the last scene or even as a post-credits tag,” she explained.
The writing team went through comics to figure out which character would be the best fit, and Gao credited Feige with settling on the Sakaaran/gamma child. And when it comes to the character’s future, she similarly defers all questions to him. “It was Kevin himself who decided that it should be Skaar, so direct all future questions about that to the man himself.”
Season one of Marvel’s She-Hulk is available now on Disney+.
Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.