Where is Bruce Banner going in the new episode of She-Hulk?

We’re now two episodes deep into She-Hulk, the newest Marvel show airing on Disney+. This one leans hard on comedy and cameos, with Mark Ruffalo making extended appearances as the original Hulk, who teaches his cousin Jennifer Walters about her new powers.

“When they decided to do She-Hulk — which I thought was really cool and exciting and apt and timely — it was basically like, ‘We would be interested in you passing the baton to her,'” Ruffalo told Entertainment Weekly. “They gave me the premise, which I already knew from the comics, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to do that.’ And I do feel like I’m actually passing the torch on, in a strange way.”

It does indeed look like Jennifer will pick up where Bruce Banner left off, in part because the original Hulk — or He-Hulk, if you will — was last seen heading into deep space on a Sakaaran ship, the same kind that interrupted his road trip with Jennifer in the premiere episode and led to the accident that turned her into a Hulk. You may remember that the Hulk was living on the planet Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok, where he was forced to take place in gladiatorial battles. In any case, Bruce probably won’t be around for the rest of the show; I don’t know how he was getting cell reception in that thing.

“As far as Bruce leaving, we really were just looking for a convenient way to make sure that everybody knew this is Jen’s show, and it’s not going to be about Bruce,” said head writer Jessica Gao. “And we just wanted to make sure people weren’t expecting to see Bruce every single episode hanging out with her, because frankly, we can’t afford it.”

Ah, but that doesn’t explain why he’s on a Sakaaran ship in the first place. “I think it kind of opens up the possibility, if Marvel chooses to, to do something with that, to pick up that story. If they wanted,” Gao told SyFy Wire. Something tells me there’s more to it than that, but we may have to wait until all nine episodes have aired to find out more.

She-Hulk asks if we remember the time Edward Norton was the Hulk

And besides, even with Bruce gone, there are more cameos coming. We know that Charlie Cox’s Daredevil will show up at some point, for example; I have a feeling this show is going to be mostly cameos and winking asides.

For instance, “Superhuman Law” contained a reference to the fact that Bruce Banner was played by Edward Norton back in the 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk, with Ruffalo’s Banner saying he “literally” used to be a different guy. “I think it’s really funny. It’s just the reality that we all are often dancing around, but it’s true,” Ruffalo said. “I actually joked with Ed about this. I was like, ‘It’s like our generation’s Hamlet. Everyone’s going to get a shot at it.’ And there’ll probably be another couple before it’s all over. People will be like, ‘Remember when the Hulk used to look like Mark Ruffalo? Now it looks like Timothée Chalamet.’ ”

"The cool thing about this world is that it could just be anything. Five years from now it could totally morph into anything, whatever’s pertinent at the time. I almost see him going back to ‘Berserker Hulk’ or ‘World War Hulk’. It could go anywhere. That’s the exciting part — I’ve played five different versions from beginning to now, and that’s kept it interesting for me and I hope interesting for other people."

What version will we see when Hulk gets to Sakaar…or back from it? Stay tuned.

Wolverine makes his MCU debut in She-Hulk?

Continuing with the references, “Superhuman Law” also contained a couple sly nods to other parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At one point Jennifer looks at a clickbait website that lists a number of articles. One is about a huge statue of a man jutting out of the ocean, which is a reference to the end of Eternals, when the titular superheroes stopped the newly born Celestial Tiamut from destroying Earth; that’s his body.

There’s also a headline that reads, “Man fights with metal claws in bar brawl.” That sounds like a reference to Wolverine, the hot-headed mutant from X-Men. We’ve been expecting Disney to integrate the X-Men into the MCU for a while now, and it looks like they’re winding up.

New episodes of She-Hulk drop on Thursdays on Disney+.

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