Brian Michael Bendis’ Alias was one of my favorite comics of the 2000s, presenting an exciting new perspective on the Marvel Universe. So, I was over the moon when Netflix announced that they were adapting the comic as Jessica Jones in 2015. I was even happier when I watched the first episode and realized that they’d absolutely nailed the tone of the source material and that Krysten Ritter was outstanding in the lead role.
That rookie season adapted the central plot of the comic to winning effect, with David Tennant knocking it out of the park as Kilgrave (in my opinion, perhaps the best villain the MCU has seen to date). After the slightly anticlimactic Defenders, the recent season 2 picked up with Jones putting her life back together after the gripping resolution of the first season. By all accounts, it was another terrific outing of television, making it no surprise that Netflix has quickly ordered up a third season.
There’s no premiere date for it just yet, of course, but in the meantime, Marvel’s relationship with the streaming service looks to be in rude health.
Luke Cage‘s second season is due to be released on June 22nd, hopefully continuing the quality of the first outing (well, more specifically, of the first few episodes, before it got a bit less interesting), and Daredevil is also receiving a third season set to be released sometime this year, with Erik Oleson taking over as showrunner. Even critical disaster Iron Fist is getting another bite of the cherry, with Netflix willing to give the show a second chance despite the first season being both very boring and a teeny bit racist.
To me, it’s just a real shame that there’s apparently been a directive from on high that the MCU movie characters are expressly forbidden from appearing on the TV shows (and vice versa). After all, the Netflix series are often just as good as the films, and what better way to sell the idea of a linked universe than having, say, Daredevil pop up in Infinity War to help out with the attack on New York?
While that’s unlikely to ever happen, at least we now have more of Jessica Jones to look forward to.