With the roaring success of the first season of Daredevil, expectations are high for Jessica Jones, their adaption of Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos’ acclaimed Alias run. Speaking to the Television Critics Association (via SlashFilm), showrunner Melissa Rosenberg discussed what fans can expect.
“It all starts with Brian Michael Bendis’s Alias series,” she said. “He created this incredibly flawed, damaged interesting character. Regardless of gender, it was the character that drew me. He wasn’t afraid to go there and we went even further. We’ve gone further in all of our storytelling.”
The darkness of the Daredevil series took a lot of us by surprise, and Rosenberg said that Jessica Jones will definitely go to some dark places. “Well, is the audience going to respond to this or not? I don’t know, but if I’m afraid of it I’m doing the right thing.”
However, Rosenberg was keen to distance the series from too many comparisons with its Netflix sibling.
“Jessica Jones is a very different show from Daredevil,” she said. “We exist in a cinematic universe, the mythology of the universe is connected, but it will look very different. Tonally they’re very different. If you pick up Bendis’ Alias and pick up Daredevil, they’re wildly different. That was my one concern. Would I have to fit in with Daredevil? The answer was, ‘No, we’re hiring you for your point of view.’”
She also pointed out a key element of the Jessica Jones character: there’s no superhero costume, it’s just her. “The one thing [where] Steven [DeKnight] has the advantage, his show was called Daredevil, but Daredevil has an outfit,” Rosenberg said. “Charlie Cox can get a break once in a while. My show is called Jessica Jones. There is no mask. Krysten Ritter is the hardest working actress.”
We can’t wait to see what Ritter and Rosenberg have done with the character, and we’re also very excited to see Mike Colter as Luke Cage, especially after Brian Michael Bendis specifically singled him out for praise in a recent Tumblr post.
“The show is so good,” he wrote. “I have seen the first couple of episodes and because i didn’t work on it directly i can say this with full no ego fanfare: i loved it!!”
“BUT it is faithful and lively and everything that I could personally have wanted from the show. the mean streets of marvel netflix from a different perspective than matt’s but at the same time… it all fits. just like the comics on their best day. and just like Netflix DD, the look of the show is cracklin’ noir but with its own palette…krysten ritter is soooo good. and michael colter. wait until you see michael colter. the casting of luke cage, in my opinion, and have said this to everyone behind the scenes, is as strong and spot on as the casting of tony stark. its probably the hardest to cast and they got it. perfect.”
Jessica Jones will be available on Netflix later in 2015. Keep up with the latest comic book news with SciFiNow.
