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Jessica Jones deserves a new Disney+ show. Here's the evidence why.
Now that the Defenders are on Disney+ instead of Netflix, there's one hero who should get a new series.
The Defenders — Marvel's foursome of TV heroes who patrolled Hell's Kitchen — have departed their original Netflix home as their character rights have revered back to Disney. As such, there's a whole lot of speculation about which, if any, of the characters could get their own Disney+ series reboot. Since the shows were originally created by Marvel Television rather than the main Marvel Studios, it's unclear just how canon they are, or if it would even be possible to just fold the shows into the MCU.
But the Defenders characters — Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Luke Cage, Danny Rand/Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones — all have rich histories in the comics that could be woven into the Disney+ or theatrical narratives. Charlie Cox's Daredevil and Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin made cameos in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Hawkeye, respectively, which suggests that Marvel Studios sees value in them appearing in the New York City-based stories. However, given all that Disney+ and the MCU already have in the works, it seems doubtful that we'll get full-on sequels or reboots of any of the heroes' solo series.
And yet, we can't help but hope that Krysten Ritter's Jessica Jones gets another turn in the spotlight. We love that fiery hot lady with her noir detective vibes. Given that Disney+ seems to allowing characters from the MCU to explore darker themes, as appears to be the case in the upcoming Moon Knight, then Ms. Jones can adapt. Here's our case:
Exhibit A: Disney+ Needs a Dark Heroine
Right now, the announced Disney+ docket of series includes five with a female lead: WandaVision, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Echo, and Agatha: House of Harkness. Aside from Agatha, which will presumably take place in multiple eras considering the powerful witches origins, the rest have very specific lanes with their tone and core demographic. Jessica Jones is a superpowered woman who has lived a very complicated life and that's not yet reflected in the lineup of heroines on deck. She's a great counterpoint to a character like Marc Spector's MoonKnight in terms of their experienced traumas, how they react to their powers and the complicated lives they carry with them in adulthood.
Exhibit B: Marvel Studios Needs a Mystery Show
As Marvel Studios has embraced episodic TV storytelling on Disney+, they've also creatively embraced how the medium allows them to dabble in genres that aren't quite right for their theatrical stories. From WandaVision's trippy surrealism and the implied courtroom-esque drama of She-Hulk, there's already an expansion of genre exploration that itself has been a big draw. The addition of a mystery series would also be a welcome exploration for the MCU's storytelling and use of characters. Jessica Jones can certainly service that with her detective skills and street smarts.
Plus, the Disney+ Marvel shows tend to be about six episodes long, which is the perfect amount of time to craft a tight, tense mystery that is resolved without story fat. The three seasons of Jessica Jones Marvel Television made were each 13 episodes long and often suffered from the story treading its wheels at points because there was too much narrative.
And, because the Disney+ shows are actually impacting the larger MCU in a way the Netflix series never did or could, the repercussions for whatever is discovered or revealed in our hypothetical Jessica Jones series can certainly have ripple effects. Jessica Jones could remain standalone or she could uncover a mystery that kicks off the next phase of the franchise. We're fine with either option.
Exhibit C: Worst Case Scenario: Let Jones mentor Echo
If Jessica Jones can't get her own new or continuing series, there's one place where she could easily fit in the way Daredevil and Kingpin made their returns to MCU canon — Echo's upcoming spinoff.
Jessica Jones' arch-nemesis Killgrave (David Tennant) is arguably one of the greatest villains that either Marvel Studios or Marvel Television has produced. An insidious and relentless tormentor, both mentally and physically, for Jones, he was the embodiment of the constant threat so many women or compromised persons feel in their day-to-day from obsessive exes, spouses, or family members who wield ultimate power. And if there's something all Marvel storytelling has a problem with, it's having the threats be so massive and external that the stakes are almost too big to fathom. What Kilgrave did was make the enemy intimate and that had tremendous narrative power in Season 1 of the Marvel TV Jessica Jones series. And because that season was so well realized in all ways, it would be great to softly keep it canon in our heads if, like Cox, Ritter would be tapped into the MCU narrative to appear in the upcoming series, Echo.
There's already a spirit sister vibe between Alaqua Cox's angry, deaf, New York native Maya Lopez and Jones. They've both been damaged and disappointed viscerally by life, yet they've internalized their rage and use it to spur them towards their missions. With Lopez obviously much younger and without her support base in the aftermath of Hawkeye's events, it's perfect timing to bring in the worst maternal figure ever to help her navigate her new path and powers. Jones has a lot of empathy and she is a character who would entirely understand the rage simmering beneath Echo's skin. Plus, the New York backdrop is the backyard they both know, including the seedy underbelly where the criminals reside and plenty of mysteries that are ripe for the exploring.
