When audiences next catch up with superhuman private investigator Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), the super sleuth won’t be on her own: she’ll be tasked with working alongside vigilantes Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Danny Rand (Finn Jones) to save New York City in The Defenders. Speaking at a Comic Con panel with her Defenders co-stars, Ritter told fans what they can expect from the alcoholic lone wolf’s involvement:
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“She takes every opportunity to make fun of everything they’re doing, and make fun of Daredevil‘s suit, and make fun of all of it,” Ritter said. “So I think JJ in The Defenders brings a little bit of attitude and sass, and the funny.”
The vigilantes of Hell’s Kitchen will have to put their differences aside and learn to work together, standing against Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) — but for all the promised action in store, the crossover event series will continue to further the development of its heroic foursome. Six months after Daredevil season 2, blind lawyer Matt Murdock has stopped donning the horns. “He’s focusing all of his energies on being a pro bono lawyer,” Cox shared at San Diego Comic Con. “I don’t think he has any interest, really, in being Daredevil anymore.”
The origin of Danny Rand will carry over into the team-up series, with Jones saying that being forced to work as part of a team will mature Danny into becoming a superhero. “At the end of Iron Fist, [Danny] doesn’t even know what a superhero is. So then to suddenly be interacting with these three… [They] really make him kind of wise up and come to terms with his responsibilities a lot more,” Jones said of his character’s transformation. “From the beginning where we see Danny in Iron Fist to where he ends up in The Defenders, he has made that complete origin arc. He has shed his immature self. The idea is, in The Defenders, he has in a sense become the Iron Fist.”
As for the steamy love affair between Jessica and Luke, Colter says, “The flame is not out, let’s be honest. This is one of those things where there’s a lot of fighting, we have to save New York City, I have to sort this thing out with Danny Rand. We have a lot of stuff going on. I think there’s some progress, I think we make some strides but this is a long form television series that, you know, we could go there now, but then where do we have to go? It takes time.”
“Jessica is there reluctantly and she seizes every opportunity to say so,” Ritter says of the asocial PI. “At the end of the day, her participating in the Defenders roller coaster is reluctant but also her moral responsibility. Even though she often has such contempt for her abilities, JJ is still a powered person and she knows she can help. And if put to the test, she freaking will. Which is what I love so much about her.”
After The Defenders, Ritter’s Jones will return in a sophomore season of her own series, expected to arrive on Netflix in 2018. Will Jessica’s time with the Defenders make her more willing to trust others and work as part of a team? Or will the experience sour her even further?
The Defenders premieres on Netflix on August 18th.
