Today marked the premiere of Marvel’s She-Hulk: Attorney at Law on Disney+ and while the show is very much a self-contained comedy for the most part, it did seem to potentially plant a seed for a future story in the MCU. Let’s take a closer look at that somewhat subtle nod to a popular comic story.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law spoilers ahead!
As expected, the first episode gives us the origin of the She-Hulk. We see see Jennifer Walters and her cousin Bruce Banner get into a car accident which results in Bruce’s Gamma-infected blood getting into her system. The unexpected part of this equation though is the alien spaceship that caused the crash.
A familiar ship appears in front of them and causes them to swerve off of the road. Bruce later revealed that the ship was Sakaaran and that they were likely trying to get a message to him. If the ship looked familiar or “Sakaar” rings a bell, it’s because you saw them both in Thor: Ragnarok. Ok, maybe you didn’t see that exact ship, but that class of ship was featured, as you can see in the image above.
So what is the significance of this? Why is a Sakaaran ship showing up now and what could it mean for the MCU? Well, it could possibly be leading to a very popular comic story arc.
“World War Hulk” was loosely adapted as a sort of secondary story in Thor: Ragnarok. The comic story sees the Hulk enslaved and put into gladiatorial fights before leading an uprising against a brutal tyrant. The people of Sakaar then look to the Hulk as their champion and ruler after he frees them the rule of the Red King.
However, that’s not actually the story I’m talking about. That’s just the predecessor to the bigger story. One which has been rumored for the MCU for some time…
The reason the Hulk got to Sakaar in the first place is because he was banished from Earth by heroes like Reed Richards and Tony Stark, whom he thought were his friends. After another incident that saw the Hulk level half a city, Earth's Mightiest Heroes decided her was just too dangerous to be loose on Earth.
So after the Hulk freed the people of Sakaar, effectively giving himself an army that would die for him, he decided to return to Earth. However, unlike his return in the MCU, Hulk was coming to do what he does best: smash. The result is a team of heroes facing off against Hulk and his Sakaaran army. As you could probably guess, chaos ensues.
So if a return to Sakaar is potentially in the cards for the Hulk, it seems possible “World War Hulk” could be on the horizon as well. We’ll just have to wait to see what kind of message this Sakaaran ship was trying to deliver.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is now streaming on Disney+.