Warning: spoilers ahead
The Marvel star and comedian confirmed that paralegal and She-Hulk’s BFF Nikki Ramos, whom she plays, is queer in an interview with TVLine on Thursday (8 September).
Rumours began circulating that the character might be queer after some pretty obvious evidence in episode four of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law where Ramos helps Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany), better known as She-Hulk, set up her online dating profile, remarking that “hetero life is grim.”
“I wish that we got to more,” Gonzaga said in the interview. “Nikki is definitely queer, she’s free, she’ll love anyone. I thought of her initially as being bi, because I’m kind of projecting myself onto this character.
“In truth, I think Nikki will love anyone – and she can hang with anyone, which is fun. She can hang with villains, and she can all of a sudden convince them to get on her side. She can charm herself out of any situation.”
Gonzaga also added that she has “no rules for Nikki,” adding that it adds to the friendship between her and Walters. While the sprinkling of queer energy was great, Gonzaga did add that she would like to see more from the character.
“I wish we got to see her dating more,” She continued. “But I will say she has a bit of a secret crush on Mallory, which we’ll see. Nikki doesn’t have any problems dating, so we’re trying to focus on what needs to happen, which is getting Jen to love herself in both forms and finally go on some decent dates.”
The interview also revealed some hilarious behind-the-scenes considerations that Gonzaga had to make for the role. When asked about her trick with maintaining the correct eye line with She-Hulk, she said: “Oh my goodness, I keep joking that if I don’t look at the eye line and I look at Tatiana’s face, that means in post-production, Nikki is just constantly staring at She-Hulk’s boobs.
“Now, I’m not mad at She-Hulk’s boobs, but we can’t do that,” she joked.
The Disney+ show has been emanating queer energy from day one of its reveal. She-Hulk frontrunner Tatiana Maslany said that her performance was inspired by the late trans icon SOPHIE in an interview with Variety.
“Musically, SOPHIE just lives in this place that I always want to live in, but there’s a poppiness and femininity combined with these clashing industrial sounds,” Maslany said.
In particular, the music video of SOPHIE’s hit Faceshopping inspired her performance as Walters, because it focuses on body dysmorphia – an experience that Walters feels as she becomes She-Hulk.
“Her music video Faceshopping was all about skin, the commodification of the body and being separated into different parts, and that all felt thematically and spiritually connected,” she said.