Let Your Nightmares Begin: David Tennant, A.K.A. Kilgrave, Returns to Jessica Jones For S2

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The above photo is as chilling as it is exciting. Despite talk to the contrary from early last year, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that David Tennant will indeed be reprising the role of the sadistic villain, Kilgrave, on Season 2 of Jessica Jones.

If you’ve watched the harrowing first season of Jessica Jones, you know that Kilgrave was Jessica’s ultimate nemesis, having used his mind-control powers in the past to force her into a dangerous sexual relationship during which he also forced her to commit atrocities, only to come back for her just as she thought she was free of him. At the end of the first season, she became immune to his power and snapped his neck, killing him in the finale.

It’s likely, then, that his involvement will be in the form of flashbacks, though as Entertainment Weekly reports in their exclusive, “Marvel is keeping specific details of Tennant’s involvement under wraps.”

While the dynamic between Kilgrave and Krysten Ritter’s Jessica was disturbing to watch, I love that Tennant is involved in the upcoming season of the show, even if only in flashback form. One, because I’m a huge fan of Tennant’s, and he’s a brilliant actor. And two, because Kilgrave traumatized Jessica. It would be unrealistic and a disservice to a story about that kind of trauma to have her just get over it. Her relationship with Kilgrave is something she might never get over completely, and while she is absolutely strong enough to pick up the pieces and move forward in her life of being a hero, it’s important to show how an experience like that continues to effect even the strongest among us.

Jessica Jones puts violence and abuse in its proper place as something horrific and to be avoided at all costs lest you inflict or experience damage that will last long after the act itself. My hope is that the return of Kilgrave will allow for that kind of honest and truthful depiction, not to victimize Jessica, but to be respectful of the work it takes to move past an experience like what she went through with him.

What do you think? Will you be happy to see Tennant back on the show? What do you hope for in the return of Kilgrave? Let’s talk Jessica Jones below!

Meanwhile, we can expect Jessica Jones Season 2 to drop in early 2018. 

(via MCU Exchange, image: Entertainment Weekly)

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Teresa Jusino
Teresa Jusino (she/her) is a native New Yorker and a proud Puerto Rican, Jewish, bisexual woman with ADHD. She's been writing professionally since 2010 and was a former TMS assistant editor from 2015-18. Now, she's back as a contributing writer. When not writing about pop culture, she's writing screenplays and is the creator of your future favorite genre show. Teresa lives in L.A. with her brilliant wife. Her other great loves include: Star Trek, The Last of Us, anything by Brian K. Vaughan, and her Level 5 android Paladin named Lal.