Before principal photography on She-Hulk: Attorney At Law ever got underway, rumors had the legal comedy pegged for a 10-episode first season. Similar rumors hovered around Marvel Studios’ first streaming effort, WandaVision, which like She-Hulk, ultimately consisted of nine episodes. With most of Marvel Studios’ streaming series consisting of 6 episodes, these two stand as outliers. So what determines just how many episodes will comprise each series? According to director Kat Coiro, the episode count for She-Hulk wasn’t something that was predetermined by Marvel Studios.
Talking with The Direct, Coiro explained that She-Hulk was fairly deep into development before the number of episodes started to come into focus.
One of the most amazing experiences I’ve had as a creator and as an artist is Marvel is not bound by the same rules as, you know, other TV shows that have to be 22 minutes. And the story really dictated the length of the season. And so as the story came into focus and as we started putting the pieces together, it landed at nine. It could’ve been eight, it could’ve been eleven. And it’s the same with the length of the episodes. There isn’t a number you have to hit. It really is, ‘What’s best for this episode,’ which, in my opinion, is how it should be.
Kat Coiro
One of the benefits of owning your own streaming series is being able to play a little fast and loose with things like runtime and episode count. And while that may seem obvious, it’s something that Marvel Studios has struggled with throughout their first round of streaming series. Criticisms of rushed or crammed finale have been levied against series like The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and Hawkeye. On the other hand, Loki’s total runtime seemed just right. Perhaps as Marvel Studios continues to evolve as a “television studio”, they’ll continue to learn the right lessons and let the story dictate the runtime, not let the runtime dictate the story.
Source: The Direct
