If you’ve seen the trailer for the upcoming She-Hulk series, you should have seen a familiar face. Emil Blonsky, better known as The Abomination, will be making his return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. How long as it been since we’ve last seen him? Quite a while. His MCU debut was also his last MCU appearance from the 2008 Incredible Hulk movie. Does it feel weird that The Incredible Hulk is still technically a part of the MCU? For the longest time, it felt like it wasn’t. That was until we saw William Hurt reprise his role as General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. That one connection seemingly proved that The Incredible Hulk was still canon. You know, aside from Edward Norton being replaced by Mark Ruffalo.
Yeah, that was a significant change that happened so early in the beginning stages of the MCU. And for the longest time, none of the other cast members would appear in the MCU aside from William Hurt. One of the standouts from that movie was Tim Roth as mercenary Emil Blonsky. First of all, when is Tim Roth not cool? The answer is never. Even when the movie isn’t so good, he’s still a saving grace that makes it watchable. A very good example is when he played General Thade in the 2001 Planet of the Apes movie. Of course, we all remember that movie to be one of the worst ones in the franchise. However, I think most of us would agree that his villain was the best part of it. Like, by a major long shot.
So when he was signed on to play one of the Hulk’s biggest villains in The Incredible Hulk, it just screamed perfect casting. And as expected, he knocked it out of the park. Literally. For most of the movie, he was Emily Blonsky, but we eventually got what we all wanted to see when he was transformed into The Abomination. Without a doubt, he was always the Hulk’s greatest physical challenge. One more than one occasion, he has overpowered the Hulk. How many other Marvel characters can say they did that? Not very many, but The Abomination is one of them. That’s why he was the perfect villain for The Incredible Hulk. There was simply no other villain who could serve as a bigger challenge. Now all we need is for Tim Blake Nelson to return and actually play The Leader.
You know what? That might actually happen. It won’t happen in another Hulk movie, but we could see that in the upcoming She-Hulk series. The series could be a good opportunity to bring in the Hulk villains we never got to see in the movies. When Kevin Feige announced that Marvel and Disney were developing a She-Hulk show for Disney+, he included something rather unexpected. After twelve years, we finally got confirmation that Tim Roth would finally be returning to play The Abomination once again. Boy, that was exciting news. I think by now, we could finally be assured that The Incredible Hulk is a part of the MCU canon. Other than his name being mentioned in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, we never heard much more about the villain. The only piece of information about his status was what we already knew: he is incarcerated and probably never being released.
Since he was announced for the She-Hulk series, we wondered if he would be the main villain once again. It was only fitting, especially since he gave her cousin a serious run for his money. However, just go watch the trailer and you might get a different vibe. We did only get to see a glimpse of Tim Roth as both Blonsky and as The Abomination and both of those times we saw him in his containment cell. Comic fans know that Jennifer Walters, the civilian identity of She-Hulk, is a respected defense attorney for superhumans. The trailer shows a new firm being formed for exactly that. Guess who will be leading it? That would be the titular character herself, only her first client will probably be the villain who nearly killed her cousin.
Now that is weird and unexpected. I mean, can you really have a Hulk-related show with The Abomination and not make him the villain? Well, it looks like Marvel is pulling off the unexpected. That’s a good thing, but this does make me curious. If Blonsky won’t be the villain in the She-Hulk series, then can he possibly be a reformed ally to She-Hulk? She will be his defense attorney, so it is possible they will form a more stable relationship. Then again, that just doesn’t seem so fitting for a villain like that.
We know that Jameel Jamil will be playing the powerhouse villain Titania in the series and this could be She-Hulk’s villain. If she won’t be the main antagonist of the show, then she’ll probably be her big physical challenge. It is the logical move, considering The Abomination was her cousin’s villain. The show would do her better if they gave her a villain of her own and not taking on a villain we’ve seen before. At best, The Abomination could be a secondary villain. That would be my guess, but Marvel has thrown curveballs at us before.
Either way, I’m just so excited to see Tim Roth return to his character once again. This is a very underrated villain and we’ll welcome his return to the MCU. Only this time, he actually looks more like the character. Just go watch Shang-Chi again and you’ll get a much longer and better look. What are your thoughts, Marvel fans? What kind of role do you think The Abomination will play in the She-Hulk series? Will he be an unexpected ally to Jennifer Walters or will he remain a dangerous villain? We will all find out when it premieres in August.
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