Video: By now, you’ve seen it. That stiff, lifeless red menace that’s come to symbolise basically everything there is to be concerned about regarding Marvel and ABC’s upcoming Inhumans TV series. I’m talking, of course, about Medusa’s hair. Here’s the crazy thing, though: In the show’s latest trailer? It. Looks. Good.
Image: Marvel
It would be entirely understandable if you made it through the bulk of this trailer and thought to yourself, “None of this footage looks new and that’s definitely the same bad CG hair from before.” You have to make it to the very end of the clip when Medusa steps out from behind a bus and proceeds to kick an opponent’s arse in a parking lot. Notice anything different?
At some point during Inhumans‘ first season, Medusa’s going to lose her head of inhumanly bad-looking locks and goddamn, if she doesn’t look absolutely fantastic with that red buzzcut. Turns out the best way to fix her horrible CG locks was to get rid of them entirely.
While Medusa’s hair is traditionally one of the most defining things about her, she recently lost most of it in Marvel’s Royals series where it’s explained that her body is essentially rejecting the Terrigen that gave her her abilities as a form of retribution for destroying the Terrigen cloud. The reaction’s robbed her of her hair, but since then she’s found a sort of strength as the Inhumans’ badarse warrior queen who fights with her fists as well as her wits.
Obviously, in the comics, Medusa’s hair loss is a lot more significant, considering that her hair has been an integral part of her identity for decades at this point. The same isn’t necessarily true of her presence in the MCU simply because this is our first time seeing Medusa, and the hair loss won’t have the same gravity. That being said, though, look at how much more engaged in her fight scene actress Serinda Swan is compared to when we’ve seen her using the hair to fight. The buzz cut is definitely an upgrade.
Hopefully Medusa will come to appreciate the shorter style after Inhumans premieres in the US on November 3.