Season 1 (2015)

Season 2 (2018)

Season 3 (2019)

Development

In December 2010, Melissa Rosenberg was developing AKA Jessica Jones for ABC under her new production banner Tall Girls Productions, along with ABC Studios and Marvel Television. The series, which would be based on the comic book series Alias and centered on the character Jessica Jones, was intended to air in 2011 of the 2011–12 television season, with Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb, Joe Quesada, Alan Fine, and Howard Klein serving as executive producers, and Alias writer Brian Michael Bendis acting as a consultant.^[34] At the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International, Loeb said the series was "about a failed superhero who is rebuilding her life as a private detective in New York City", and would include the characters Carol Danvers and Luke Cage.^[15] In November, Rosenberg said the show was now "hoping to get on the schedule for" 2012 of the 2012–13 television season, and added, "I love this character. That is an incredibly damaged, dark, complex female character that kicks ass [...] [she is] a former superhero with PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder." She also stated that, while Cage was a part of the series, the couple's daughter Danielle would appear "way down the road".^[35] Rosenberg said later in the month that the series would acknowledge the existence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with references to Tony Stark and Stark Industries in the pilot script, but admitted that "as we go along things will alter in terms of what is made available to us, but we're definitely in that universe. We are in no way denying that that universe exists. And as much as I can I'm going to pull everything in from there that I can use". She also confirmed that Danvers would be a principal character in the series.^[36]

In May 2012, ABC president Paul Lee said the network had passed on the series.^[37] Loeb revealed that ABC had requested the series switch its focus to Danvers as the main character, who has "a great life" living on Fifth Avenue, with Jones become a side character to Danvers' story.^[38] Later that year, Rosenberg was shopping the show around to other networks,^[39] saying "I don't know if it's an ABC show. It might be a cable show, really. The [Alias] graphic novel is the first one that Marvel did that was meant to serve an adult audience. I toned it down a little bit for network, but it's very, very easy to translate that into cable. Very easy."^[40] In October 2013, Deadline Hollywood reported that Marvel was preparing four drama series and a miniseries, totaling 60 episodes, to present to video on demand services and cable providers, with Netflix, Amazon, and WGN America expressing interest.^[41] A few weeks later, Marvel and Disney announced that Marvel Television and ABC Studios would provide Netflix with live action series centered around Jessica Jones, Daredevil, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage, leading up to a miniseries based on the Defenders.^[42] Rosenberg was brought on to write and produce the new incarnation of the series, to be reconfigured from her original project,^[43][44] which she called a "page one do-over" from her original vision.^[17] S. J. Clarkson served as an executive producer for the first episode.^[45] Liz Friedman also serves as an executive producer on the series during the first season.^[46] In December 2014, the official title was revealed to be Marvel's A.K.A. Jessica Jones.^[47] However, in June 2015, Marvel revealed that the title for the series would be shortened to Marvel's Jessica Jones.^[48] On why the title was shortened, Loeb said, "It literally just became one of those things that happens. We had talked about whether that was the best title for it, and that's how it happened." Rosenberg added that the "AKA" would still be seen in the name of each episode.^[17]

In January 2016, Netflix ordered a second season of 13 episodes.^[49] Raelle Tucker joined the series as an executive producer and writer for the second season, replacing Friedman, who departed the series to work on the pilot for the ABC series Conviction.^[50] A third season was ordered on April 12, 2018, a month after the second season was released.^[51] That August, Rosenberg signed a deal to move from Netflix to Warner Bros. Television to develop new projects for the latter, after she had been looking to "do something different". Rosenberg remained showrunner of the series through completion of the third season,^[52] with Scott Reynolds joining her as co-showrunner.^[53]

Writing

Rosenberg talked about the freedom that the series had, saying that it would go "even further in all our storytelling" than what Brian Michael Bendis did in the Alias comic: "That's the beauty of working with Netflix. It's 13 [episodes]. There's no pilot and then getting feedback, reaction and ratings. You're in this bubble. So, what's the story you want to tell? Where do you want to go with [the characters]?"^[55] Expanding on this, Rosenberg said that "we start off with [Bendis'] incredible source material and Jessica Jones isn't as well known in the universe obviously as Daredevil and everyone else, so it really allows for a lot of freedom in there. So there are restrictions in terms of the Marvel [Cinematic U]niverse of certain rules of mythology, but within that it's free pass."^[6] Rosenberg noted that the final series is very different from the version she developed for ABC because of the different mythology of the MCU.^[54]

Rosenberg invited Bendis to the series' writers room early on in the writing process, so the writers could ask Bendis any questions about the character. He walked away from the meeting saying, "they were asking the right questions, and that's a good sign." Bendis also noted that Rosenberg was approaching the character and issues of rape and abuse differently to him, on which he said "I made the right choice for me as a writer then and they're making the right choice for them as writers now. I thought about how much is different and how much has changed, and if it's not brought up in Jessica, when will it be brought up? So I was like, 'Yeah, you should.' I thought that Melissa and the writers were the people to do that and that medium was better-suited to tell that kind of story."^[56]

Casting

In August 2014, Sarandos said the series was beginning to look "at casting Jessica."^[57] By November, Krysten Ritter, Alexandra Daddario, Teresa Palmer, Jessica De Gouw, and Marin Ireland were being tested for the role of Jessica Jones,^[3] with Ritter having been auditioning since October.^[6] Additionally, Lance Gross, Mike Colter, and Cleo Anthony were in contention for the role of Luke Cage, which was envisioned as a recurring role in the series before headlining Luke Cage.^[3] The next month, Ritter was cast as Jessica Jones. Ritter and Palmer had been the final candidates for the role, with both auditioning opposite Colter to test chemistry.^[4] Colter was confirmed as Luke Cage later in December.^[10] In January 2015, David Tennant was cast as Kilgrave,^[27] and Rachael Taylor was cast as Patricia "Trish" Walker.^[14] The latter character was added to the series as a replacement for Carol Danvers, as she was set to feature in her own film.^[16] A month later, Carrie-Anne Moss joined the cast,^[23] with her role revealed that October to be Jeri Hogarth, a female version of male comic book character Jeryn Hogarth.^[25] Also in February, Eka Darville, Erin Moriarty, and Wil Traval were cast as Malcolm Ducasse,^[5] Hope Shlottman,^[5][21] and Will Simpson, respectively.^[5][21]

Ritter,^[58] Taylor,^[59] Darville,^[60] and Moss return for the second season.^[61] They are joined by J. R. Ramirez as Oscar Arocho,^[28] Terry Chen as Pryce Cheng,^[29] Leah Gibson as Inez Green,^[30][62] and Janet McTeer as Alisa Jones.^[31] Traval and Tennant also appear in the second season as guest stars.^[63][64] Ritter, Taylor, Moss, and Darville also return for the third season.^[51]

Design

Title sequence

External videos
The opening title sequence of Jessica Jones, showcasing David Mack's artwork and composer Sean Callery's main theme for the series.

The series' title sequence, created by Imaginary Forces,^[68] incorporates the jazz-style theme from composer Sean Callery mixed with artwork by David Mack, the cover artist for the original Alias comic,^[69] "taking [the viewer] around seedier, noir-esque corners of Hell's Kitchen, as if through Jessica's eyes."^[70]

Arisu Kashiwagi, lead designer at Imaginary Forces for the title sequence, was "inspired by all the changing activity and vignettes within those rows of windows [for New York-style buildings] — the patterns of light, color, narratives, and graphic silhouettes. It is pretty amazing how much you can see and the number of windows out there with wide open shades [...] I could understand our innate fascination with the rear window and that discomforting pleasure when catching a small sliver of a private act."^[68] She also looked to Edward Hopper's "Night Windows" and Gerhard Richter's paintings for reference. In order to differentiate the sequence from other painting-inspired ones, Kashiwagi chose to take "a more modern, abstract look while also embracing the spirit of David Mack's watercolor paintings from" Alias. On the design concept, she added, "We based the concept off of Jessica's PTSD and alcoholism, her blurry, unreliable point of view, and translated that visually using paint strokes that smear and obfuscate the scenes [...] the scenes would appear only in small sections of the frame, either blocked by a foreground element or contained inside of a silhouetted framing device."^[68] Michelle Dougherty, creative director on the project, looked to the opening sequence of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window to help create the "voyeuristic approach" as well as "using the city as a character" to highlight "the dark places [and] the grit" where Jones investigates.^[68]

Filming

Filming for the series took place in New York City,^[71] including areas of Brooklyn and Long Island City that still look like the old Hell's Kitchen,^[72] Douglaston, Queens,^[73] as well as sound stage work.^[72] Manuel Billeter served as director of photography for the series.^[74] Petr Hlinomaz was the director of photography for "A.K.A. I Wish".

Visual effects

Visual effects for the series were completed by the New York studio Shade VFX, who also worked on Daredevil, with Bryan Goodwin serving as visual effects supervisor.^[75]

Music

At the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International, Sean Callery revealed he was composing the music for the series.^[76] Callery did not begin composing the series' main theme until after reading two or three scripts, and did not see the opening graphics until after the second episode, at which point he had "a framework for a theme that [he] hoped would work". At this time, Callery said he started "fooling around" with ideas for the theme, and eventually settled on one that he felt had a "sneaky and fun-ness" quality, adding, Jessica Jones "has dry humor, a real edge to her. But there was something to this character that had a little whisker of playfulness in there, like a cat or something." After creating the theme, Callery began working on the rhythmic quality of it, eventually fully orchestrating his idea into what became the resulting opening theme. Regarding the electric guitar's entrance, Callery pointed out that it got "bigger there because as I looked at the graphics, the lights got a little more strobe-y. So that's when I decided the electric guitar might be a kind of neat add there so that the whole piece will arc a little more."^[77] A soundtrack album for the first season was released digitally on June 3, 2016.^[78][79] Jamie Forsyth also contributed to the music of the first season.^[79] A soundtrack album for the second season was released digitally on March 16, 2018.^[80] A soundtrack album for the third season was released digitally on July 19, 2019.^[81]

Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-ins

Jessica Jones is the second of the ordered Netflix series, after Daredevil, and was followed by Luke Cage and Iron Fist, which led to the miniseries, The Defenders.^[82][83][84] In November 2013, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that, if the characters prove popular on Netflix, "It's quite possible that they could become feature films,"^[85] which Sarandos echoed in July 2015.^[86] In August 2014, Vincent D'Onofrio, who played Wilson Fisk in Daredevil, stated that after the "series stuff with Netflix", Marvel has "a bigger plan to branch out".^[87] In March 2015, Loeb spoke on the ability for the series to cross over with the MCU films and the ABC television series, saying, "It all exists in the same universe. As it is now, in the same way that our films started out as self-contained and then by the time we got to The Avengers, it became more practical for Captain America to do a little crossover into Thor 2 and for Bruce Banner to appear at the end of Iron Man 3. We have to earn that. The audience needs to understand who all of these characters are and what the world is before you then start co-mingling in terms of where it's going."^[88]

On specific crossovers with Daredevil, which had completed its first season by the time Jessica Jones began casting, Loeb said "they're in the same area. In some cases they are in the same neighborhood. One of the things that is important to us is, when you enter the police station, it's the same police station. When you go to the hospital, you start to see the same people. [But] we don't want people suddenly going, 'Wait, is that Matt Murdock that's walking down the street?' Because that's going to feel odd, and in a weird way feel false."^[7] On existing in the MCU, specifically in the same world as the other Netflix series, Rosenberg said, "Jessica Jones is a very, very different show than Daredevil. We exist in a cinematic universe, [and] the mythology of the universe is connected, but they look very different, tonally they're very different... That was my one concern coming in: Am I going to have to fit into Daredevil or what's come before? And the answer is no."^[55]

Streaming

Jessica Jones was released on the streaming service Netflix, in all territories where it is available,^[46][47] in Ultra HD 4K and high-dynamic-range video (HDR).^[90] The first season was enhanced to be available in HDR after its initial release by post-production vendor Deluxe.^[91] The episodes for each season were released simultaneously, as opposed to a serialized format, to encourage binge-watching, a format which has been successful for other Netflix original series.^[71][72] Despite being branded as a "Netflix Original", Jessica Jones was licensed to Netflix from Disney.^[92]

Jessica Jones was removed from Netflix on March 1, 2022, along with the other Marvel Netflix series, due to Netflix's license for the series ending and Disney regaining the rights.^[93] Disney opted not to have Netflix pay a large licensing fee to retain the distribution rights for the series,^[94] and instead announced that all the series would be made available on Disney+ on March 16 in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, and in Disney+'s other markets by the end of 2022.^[95][96] In the United States, revised parental controls were introduced to the service to allow the more mature content of the series to be added, similarly to the controls that already exist for other regions that have the Star content hub.^[97]

Home media

Audience viewership

Prior to the series' cancellation, Netflix did not reveal subscriber viewership numbers for any of their other original series. However, Karim Zreik, senior vice president of original programming at Marvel Television, provided some viewership demographics for Jessica Jones in August 2017, noting that the series has attracted a large number of female viewers.^[101] Also in the month, Netflix released viewing patterns for the Marvel Netflix series. The data, which came from Netflix's "1,300 'taste communities' around the world, where subscribers are grouped based on what they watch", showed that viewers would not watch the series in chronological order by release, rather starting with Jessica Jones, then Daredevil, Luke Cage, and finally Iron Fist. Todd Yellin, Netflix's vice president of product innovation, noted that audiences watch the series "in order of how they're interested in them and how they learn about them." Netflix's data also showed that a viewer watching Jessica Jones would most often then move on to Daredevil, and vice versa, with Yellin figuring that Jessica Jones and Luke Cage would have paired up more, given that Cage was introduced on Jessica Jones. The data also revealed that other "comedies and shows with strong women" such as Friends, Master of None, and Orange Is the New Black led viewers to starting Jessica Jones.^[102] In October 2018, Crimson Hexagon, a consumer insights company, released data that examined the "social-media buzz" for the series to try to correlate it with potential viewership. The data showed that when the first season premiered in November 2015, the season had just under 300,000 Twitter and Instagram posts regarding it, and when the second season was released in March 2018, the posts had declined by half, to under 150,000.^[103]

Critical response

For its first season, the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 94% approval rating with an average rating of 8.2/10, based on 80 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Jessica Jones builds a multifaceted drama around its engaging antihero, delivering what might be Marvel's strongest TV franchise to date."^[104] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 81 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[105]

For season two, Rotten Tomatoes reported an 82% approval rating with an average rating of 7/10, based on 89 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "While Jessica Jones is a slower burn with less focus than its inaugural season, its enticing new character arc more fully details the most charismatic Defender."^[106] Metacritic assigned the season a score of 70 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[107]

For season three, Rotten Tomatoes reported an approval rating of 73% with an average rating of 6.4/10, based on 40 reviews. The website's critical consensus states, "Even if it's not the most satisfying finale for an entire era of Marvel television, Jessica Jones' final chapter finishes strong by giving its complicated heroine the space to change – and Krysten Ritter one last chance to work her sarcastic magic."^[108] Metacritic gave a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[109]

Accolades

In December 2015, IGN named Jessica Jones the best Netflix original programming series released to date.^[128] Seasons two and three were recognized with The ReFrame Stamp for hiring people of underrepresented gender identities, and of color.^[129][130]