Television shows and movies are planned and written months in advance. So when a series is so reflective and representative of current events, audiences assume that it was written and filmed immediately in response. But that’s not how it works in real life. Marvel’s She-Hulk planned out their plot and storylines prior to the outrageous – and often misogynist – responses from “fanboys” who deemed the series as “man-hating.” Actor Jon Bass — who plays Todd, aka HulkKing, a character not far off from those commenters — was surprised at how much the series paralleled what was online in real life.
“I think it’s pretty phenomenal to see how great [showrunner] Jessica Gao was able to spotlight exactly how they were going to react – sort of the way that in the second episode when they’re sort of going through all the internet comments of “Why do we have a She-Hulk now? – and all that stuff,” Bass tells The Nerds of Color.
Bass says the haters bring nothing new and are just regurgitating the same comments over and over again on anything new or unfamiliar to these “fanboys.” He found it really easy to portray this character because of how accessible these fanboys made themselves to be. As a billionaire and founder of Intelligencia – the MCU’s version of Reddit and 4chan, Todd is definitely a unique kind of villain who represents toxic masculinity within the MCU.
“As an actor, I was really excited to bring this new kind of villainy into the MCU,” Bass says of his chauvinistic character. “[There] hasn’t been this sort of real world villainy that we’ve seen before. So it was exciting and as much as a piece of shit he was, I was really excited to bring it in. I think I did a good job because – man, people really hate Todd.”
Check out the full interview below:
The entire first season of Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is available now on Disney+.
