JESSICA JONES
SEASON 2

A SECOND SEASON FILMED AFTER THE DEFENDERS

HOW THE SEASON WAS MADE AND RELEASED

Netflix ordered a 13-episode second season on 17 January 2016, with Melissa Rosenberg as showrunner. Filming began in the week of 3 April 2017 in New York City under the working title Violet and wrapped on 14 September 2017, back to back with the end of The Defenders shoot. Netflix released all 13 episodes worldwide on 8 March 2018, timed to International Women’s Day.

Rosenberg confirmed in October 2016 that women would direct all 13 episodes, and each one has a woman director, among them Anna Foerster, Minkie Spiro, Deborah Chow and Jennifer Lynch.

NO TENNANT VILLAIN, A HARDER QUESTION

WHAT THE SEASON IS ABOUT

Rosenberg said on 9 March 2018 that the writers did not want to repeat themselves because they “weren’t going to top Kilgrave,” the villain David Tennant played in Season 1. Tennant returns as a hallucination. Instead the season digs into the experiments behind Jessica’s powers, with Janet McTeer joining as Alisa Jones, and Rosenberg framed the central question as Jessica’s own:

“Am I the killer that Kilgrave turned me into? Am I a hero?”

Melissa Rosenberg, 9 March 2018

Rosenberg added that McTeer’s character would “really shake Jessica to her core.”

RITTER, TAYLOR AND A NEW ANTAGONIST

WHO IS IN THE CAST, AND WHO SCORED IT

The cast includes Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse, Carrie-Anne Moss as Jeri Hogarth, J. R. Ramirez as Oscar Arocho, Terry Chen as Pryce Cheng, Leah Gibson as Inez Green and McTeer as Alisa Jones. Sean Callery composed the score, and he received an Emmy nomination for it in 2018.

A SLOWER BURN THAN SEASON 1

WHAT CRITICS SAID

SlashFilm’s Chris Evangelista called Ritter’s Jessica the best character in Netflix’s Marvel line-up and the season “an entertaining, if slightly muddled” return, though he wrote that every Netflix Marvel season is “about two episodes too long.” He described McTeer’s role as a stronger, angrier version of Jessica herself.

Rotten Tomatoes lists an 82% critics’ score from 89 reviews and a 67% audience score, and its consensus says the season is “a slower burn with less focus than its inaugural season.” Metacritic gives it 70 from 19 critics.

THE REWATCH

ONE MORE SEASON AND A CANCELLATION

Netflix ordered a third season in April 2018, and Rosenberg stayed as showrunner through it. Season 3 arrived on 14 June 2019 with all 13 episodes, although the series had been cancelled on 18 February 2019, before that premiere.

In the Marvel Marathon it is catalogued as Marvel Television and sits in the Marvel TV shows in order guide between Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5 and Legion Season 2, and in the MCU timeline guide between Doctor Strange and Luke Cage Season 2. It is not in the MCU release-order, series or movie guides.