At the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour this week, Marvel’s Jessica Jones executive producer/showrunner Melissa Rosenberg and her fellow EP Jeph Loeb (head of Marvel TV) discussed the upcoming series – the second of the Marvel shows to debut on Netlfix, following this year’s launch of Daredevil.

Casting Krysten

Krysten Ritter stars as Jessica Jones.

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Purple Man

David Tennant will play Killgrave, AKA Marvel's Purple Man.

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Rosenberg and Loeb spoke about several of the key characters and casting choices in the series, centered around the Marvel comics superhero turned private eye, and the dark world she lives in, based on Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos' adult-themed Marvel comic, Alias.While Krysten Ritter has proven her talent for bringing a funny, sardonic edge to characters, she's never played someone in the superhero realm before - even an ex-superhero like Jessica. But Rosenberg and Loeb said she was bringing exactly the right sensibility to the role.Krysten has incredible range. We all know that she can deliver a dry line. We got a taste of it in Breaking Bad, her dramatic chops. She goes further than that to very dark, emotional places. What sells her-- first of all, the actress herself really is a superhero. The show is called Jessica Jones. She’s in every scene. We beat the crap out of her. You really get her strength of character, not in a noble way necessarily but she’s a tough broad.Jessica is incredibly damaged and justifiably so. I think one of the things they’ve worked so hard at and really delivered on and Krysten delivers in her performance is that you really understand who she is and where she comes from and what each of us might have done in that similar situation and that’s really where Marvel kind of sparkles, where you as the viewer has a connection on a level that has nothing to do with powers, nothing to do with costumes, nothing to do with comic books. It has everything to do with being a human being and "What would I do" if that were that case?David Tennant has been cast as Killgrave, AKA Purple Man in the comics – a villain whose storyline in Alias is extremely dark and twisted, in relation to his history with Jessica.When you see the dynamic between Krysten Ritter and David Tennant, who plays our villain, the question of what’s going to happen next and what could happen next and how that’s driven by character is something that’s so important, not just to the scripts but to the way the show is shot and the way everybody reacts and the way those two actors react with each other. In the same kind of way Vincent D’onofrio owned his half of Daredevil, you’ll see David Tennant own his half of Jessica Jones so that you’re continually finding this incredible balance. I think one of the things that Melissa handled so beautifully is that there are times where there are questions about what the villain is doing and you will be uncomfortably okay or not so much against what he’s doing until you g,o “Oh no, you’re really the villain. You really are a horrible person.”[Tennant] came up right away but he wasn’t available and then he became available and we were still looking and we grabbed him as fast as we could.Sometimes what happens is you make a wish list of people you hope will be able to do it and David was right at the top. Things sometimes change and when they do, one of the things that Marvel is very good at is being sort of nimble so if we can move something around that’s what we do and this just happened to work out that way.

Continue to Page 2 to learn more about Luke Cage, Trish Walker and Jessica Jones' fighting style.