Marvel’s Jessica Jones – Season 1 – Key Art
From the showrunner to the extras, a show like Marvel’s Jessica Jones can’t be done without some great behind-the-scenes work. The creative team behind the show brings a wealth of expertise to the table, whether it’s from producing nail-biting drama, crafting sharp dialogue and/or bringing a comic-based world to the screen.
Just how did showrunner and executive producer Melissa Rosenberg end up carrying on a dogged four-year fight to bring Jessica Jones to the screen?
“I finished up on the Twilight movies and on Dexter [and] I was looking for the next project,” says Rosenberg. “I went around to the various studios and said, ‘Well, there’s two things I would like to do: I would love to do the female Sopranos, and I would love to do the female Iron Man. ABC Studios promptly introduced me to Jeph Loeb, who handed me the Alias comic books. I couldn’t put (them) down.”
The look and feel of Marvel’s Jessica Jones is of vital importance to the believability of the world these characters must inhabit. Production designer Loren Weeks — who also worked on the Netflix original series Marvel’s Daredevil — was brought on board to help determine the show’s signature look.
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Weeks says Jessica’s world isn’t quite as dark as Daredevil’s, even though the storylines are incredibly gritty and suspenseful. “When she is in her world, it’s sort of a darker environment, but then she goes out in the world beyond, and it’s everybody’s everyday life,” he says. “It’s a little brighter; it’s a little more normal.”
“One thing I didn’t want was for this to be bleak,” Rosenberg adds.
Placing a heavy importance on the personal style of each of the main characters is also a big part of Weeks’ job. True to Jessica’s personality, her Hell’s Kitchen apartment is simple and sparsely decorated while Luke’s place is barely seen, adding to his mystery. By contrast, Trish Walker’s apartment is softer and more feminine, befitting Jessica’s best friend and closest confidante who also happens to be a famous radio host. Jeri Hogarth is a manipulative lawyer who only helps Jessica when she can get something in return so her immaculate office was designed in a manner that is “almost masculine,” Weeks says.
These same choices must come through in the character’s wardrobe as well. A character’s wardrobe is among the first things a television viewer sees and has to tell a story about the character or reflect his personality. It’s the costume designer’s job to establish each character’s individuality while making sure the clothes make sense within the larger environment of the show’s world.
Costume designer Stephanie Maslansky developed the outfit Jessica wears in each episode: “a leather motorcycle jacket, a pair of jeans, a tough pair of moto boots.” Trish wears more luxury brands, while Luke prefers simple clothes in dark colors, to “keep himself from being noticed or recognized.”
Maslansky says Hogarth’s all-black ensembles and simple hairstyle help make her seem “very put together and very sophisticated.”
“They put you in your outfit, and, you know, that’s the beginning of finding (the character),” Moss says. “And as soon as Krysten walked out, I just was like, Wow, that’s her. That’s Jessica Jones.”
In the months leading up to the release of the show there have been a lot of style questions about the main villain, Kilgrave. In the comics, of course, Kilgrave has the most distinct style of them all: Fans know him as the “Purple Man” because of his purple skin, but in the series, it’s been adapted to be more realistic by his affinity for violet clothing.
“It was important not to make him look ridiculous,” Maslansky says of the screen version. “He’s now a real person, and we needed to figure out a way to make him look ominous and scary and threatening.”
To do this, she incorporated a few deliberate purple and lavender accessories into Tennant’s wardrobe, like ties, cufflinks and pocket squares.
“They all worked together to create a particular look that aided, I hope, in his devilishness,” she says.
Marvel’s Jessica Jones incorporates a lot of stunt work, which Maslansky also needed to consider.
“When you’re designing for a lot of stunts, you need to (accommodate) knee pads, elbow pads, back pads, comfortable shoes,” she says. “You need to make certain that it’s not recognized or seen by the audience, and, at the same time, you have to be true to the character in terms of what they would normally wear.”
In the end, the cast and crew worked together to create a world as distinct and complex as the story itself. Shot in Manhattan – often in freezing temperatures – Loeb adds, “In many ways, New York is the fifth Defender.”
Says Ritter: “When I finally got to New York and I saw the visual board of how it was going to look, and how it was always meant to be very filmic and very noir, I was psyched. It ended up looking cooler than I could have imagined.”
Marvel’s Jessica Jones drops to Netflix on November 2oth.
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Jessica Jones features a former super-heroine from the Marvel universe. After a traumatic incident in her life, Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) decides to leave the superhero world and become a private investigator in New York City. But villainous Zebediah Kilgrave, a.k.a. Purple Man (David Tennant), an enigmatic figure from her past, reappears and sends shockwaves through her world. During the course of an investigation Jones also meets Luke Cage (Mike Colter), a man of super strength and durability, the result of a sabotaged experiment. He’s a wrongly accused escaped convict who has now become a superhero for hire.
The series is developed by Executive Producer/Showrunner Melissa Rosenberg. Melissa Rosenberg also writes a number of the episodes with famed comic book writer Brian Bendis.
For the latest news and information about this exciting new series make sure to visit our Jessica Jones dedicated pages.
And don’t forget to sign up for Jessica Jones on the official Netflix site and Marvel.com.
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