She-Hulk’s creator and star voice support for VFX unions

She Hulk Star Tatiana Maslany, series creator Jessica Gao and producer Kat Coiro have spoken out about CGI criticism leveled at the show and their own concerns about the treatment of visual effects staff. The trio’s comments on the issues came during She Hulk‘s panel at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour on Wednesday.

In the past few weeks, several stories have emerged from the VFX house and its staff accusing Disney of being particularly difficult to work with. According to reports, Disney often engages in bidding wars on its projects, driving prices down thanks to its size and power in the industry. This leads to smaller teams on each project, which increases the need for man hours. What’s more, Disney often requests changes very late in the process, resulting in artists working even worse hours, the anonymous staffers say.

“I’m incredibly honored by how talented these artists are and how fast they have to work. Obviously a lot quicker than they should be given,” Maslany said during the TCA panel. “I know a lot of eyes are on the CG and criticism or whatever. I think we have to be very aware that working conditions are not always optimal and that they have made these amazing advances in industry and technology. I look at it and I see thoughts, you know, it doesn’t look like a video game cutscene.”

“And we stand in solidarity with what they say,” Coiro said. “The truth is we work with them, but we’re not behind the scenes on those long nights and days. So when they feel pressure, we stand by them and listen to them.”

Faced with these conditions, many VFX houses and studios have attempted to unionize to give artists and employees more collective power to run their studios and demand higher, fairer prices from Marvel.

“It’s just a huge undertaking to have a show of this scale where the main character is CG, it’s a very mind-blowing and gigantic thing and it’s awful that a lot of artists feel rushed and feel like the workload is too big,” Gao said. “I think everyone on this board stands in solidarity with all workers and is very supportive of good working conditions.”

“For the union,” Maslany added.

She Hulk has received backlash for its CGI after the release of all trailers to date, including one at last month’s Marvel Comic-Con panel in San Diego. She HulkThe release date of was also pushed back a day, with a quiet announcement Wednesday about the official Disney Plus schedule for August.