Jessica Jones team saw cancellation coming, aimed for 'closure' in finale

Netflix’s string of cancellations for its interconnected Marvel shows came as a surprise when it first happened to Iron Fist and Luke Cage, and the shock still felt fresh when the ax fell on the hugely popular Daredevil, just as Matt Murdock’s final season went live last October. And with The Punisher and Jessica Jones finally going the same way this year, all five Marvel shows on Netflix have now officially gone extinct.

But unlike its Netflix siblings — including The Punisher, which debuted its final season back in January — Jessica Jones saw the writing on the wall in time to do something about it, at least in terms of giving fans (and the creative team) a satisfying series sendoff. As the show's swan song goes live this week on Netflix, viewers who’ve followed Krysten Ritter’s character since the beginning will find a “closure,” according to its creator, that was missing from other Marvel shows’ finales.

Speaking with Collider, showrunner Melissa Rosenberg (who was planning to leave the show after this year in any event) said it was creatively liberating to know that Season 3 would be Jessica Jones’ last.

“It was going to be my last season … but then it became the last season for the show, as well, which enabled us to really look at ‘Where do we want to leave each of these characters?’” Rosenberg explained. “If you look at all three seasons, as whole, what feels like a complete journey for all of the characters? We really got a chance to land them, in a satisfying way, for us and, hopefully, for the audience.”

With Season 3 just now getting its Netflix debut, the jury’s still out on how Jessica, Trish (Rachael Taylor), and even new serial-killer villain Gregory Salinger (Jeremy Bobb) will team up and square off to bring not just the season, but the series as a whole, to a fitting end. But Rosenberg said working on this season, while knowing it would be the show’s last, gave everyone a sense of peace as they set out determined to finish what they started back in 2015. “We found closure with it,” she said. “It was just really gratifying, and it felt very honest.”

Also starring Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Eka Darville (Empire), Benjamin Walker (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), Jeremy Bobb (Russian Doll), Sarita Choudhury (Homeland), Tiffany Mack (Hap and Leonard), Jessica Frances Dukes (The Good Wife), Aneesh Sheth (New Amsterdam), and Rebecca DeMornay (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle), Season 3 of Jessica Jones is now streaming at Netflix.