In today’s “News To Make You Go ‘WHAT?!'”: David Tennant is set to reprise his role of Kilgrave for Jessica Jones Season 2.
The Tenth Doctor actor chilled the masses as the manipulative Kilgrave, known in the Marvel Comics universe as the Purple Man, for the first season of Jessica Jones; today, it was revealed that the villain would return in the follow-up run of episodes, expected to feature 13 episodes and set to stream on Netflix from 2018. He was, in a hyphenated word, breath-taking.
Kilgrave’s power is understated and simple, but there lies its ingenuity: he can make you do whatever he likes. Anything. After falling for Jessica (played by Krysten Ritter), he forces her to be with him for a time… before she breaks his control over her.
However – spoiler alert for Season 1 – in the finale, Jessica snapped his neck. That makes his return unlikely to say the least. Unless, of course, he regenerated. You may argue that comic book characters frequently return from the dead, but in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (in which the various Netflix TV series take place), it’s a very rare occurrence.
Marvel and Netflix are keeping quiet as to exactly how Kilgrave is back, but two notions seem most obvious: firstly, that these are flashbacks, perhaps to a time when Jess was under his control; or secondly, that he still exists in her mind – an echo, if you will, or a ghost still exerting his incredible power over her. Although she did become immune to his charms, you never really know when the Purple Man is concerned.
It’s worth noting that the comic version of Kilgrave has died and returned, thanks to his accelerated healing abilities – so could that account for his TV return? We hope so; it’d be a shame to waste a man as talented as Tennant on mere flashbacks.
Showrunner, Melissa Rosenberg previously said:
“Sure, when you have David Tennant, you want him around forever. He’s such an extraordinary character and one of the loveliest people you’d ever want to work with. But the show is called Jessica Jones and the story is about Jessica’s arc and how does that play out in its best form?”
But Kilgrave proved arguably the most compulsive and scary enemy from Marvel’s Netflix series (which include Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, with The Punisher coming in October), so it shouldn’t be a great shock that he’s back. But it totally is.
Jessica Jones Season 2 is out in 2018, but the next Marvel series to stream is The Defenders, and brings together Jess with DD, Cage, and Danny Rand – aka the Immortal Iron Fist, played by The Sarah Jane Adventures‘ Finn Jones. You can binge that from Friday 18th August. That’s this week!
