With Netflix's Marvel show Jessica Jones currently developing its second season, there's been some speculation about the increased role Rachael Taylor's Trish Walker might play. In the comics, after all, Trish (or rather Patsy: still Patricia, different diminutive) is the costumed hero Hellcat. During the TV version's first series, there was a thread about Trish enhancing her physical abilities through fight training and... other methods. Is a black and yellow costume on the horizon?
"One of the things I like so much about Jessica Jones is the comic book is called Alias," Taylor tells CBR. "I think all of the characters have an alias in this series. They have an "also known as," or a shadow personality. They have the character that they portray to the world, and then they have the character that they maybe don't confess to themselves, or to their friends. I think for Trish, part of her shadow personality is that there's a certain covetous part of her. I think she covets some of the things that Jessica has. I think there is an unholy ambition that sits just under the surface."
"Unholy" is an interesting choice of words, since Trish's comics counterpart, as well as being a skilled martial artist, gained psychic powers from a post-suicide trip to Hell (after which she came back to life, of course). She honed those abilities in stints under the tutelage of Moondragon and Doctor Strange.
Given the street-level, down-to-Earth vibe of the Netflix Marvel universe, we can probably count all of that out. If Trish does become a Hellcat, it'll certainly be a very different take to the one from the printed page. But that doesn't mean that something isn't percolating...
"She declares it in the show," Taylor points out. "Jessica says, 'What else could you possibly want, Trish?' And Trish says, 'Well, to save the world, of course.' I do think there's a part of her that would love to make it right in the way that she thinks Jessica could make it right if she was just to overcome her dysfunctions and put down the bottle. I think Trish is very much an alpha personality type. I think she's a very ambitious woman. And I think probably, if she had the same superhero powers that Jessica had, she thinks that she would probably do a lot more with them..."
Jessica Jones' first season is on Netflix right now, with its follow-up still at the writing stage. Before that, season two of Daredevil is imminent, with Luke Cage following later this year and Iron Fist (and possibly The Punisher) sometime after that.