UPDATE: Marvel has made the official announcement, and yes, she gets a glowing quote or two. "Krysten Ritter has the type of range, spanning the comic to the tragic, that makes for the stuff of the best Marvel heroes," said Jeph Loeb, Marvel TV boss. "As Jessica Jones, Krysten will bring one of the most beloved new characters of the past decade to life in a way we know will delight her longtime fans and introduce her to many more." And according to the press release, the show’s official title is AKA Jessica Jones, set to hit Netflix next year.
Some people get big announcements with glowing quotes. So we have to assume that, while she’ll probably end up with the role, Krysten Ritter is still in the final stages of sealing her deal to play Jessica Jones in the second of the Marvel TV series set to appear on Netflix.
Ritter,who was up against some strong competition for the role, has reportedly scored the gig according to Deadline, which goes on to mention that she has been auditioning with Mike Colter, one of the prime candidates to play Luke Cage. Jones and Cage have a history in the comics – they’ve been married and had a child together in one storyline – so it sounds like he’ll be introduced in her series before kicking off his own.
With Twilight scriptwriter Melissa Rosenberg (no stranger to telly after working on shows such as Dexter and The O.C.) overseeing the 13-episode first season, Jessica Jones will follow the young woman who, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after using her superpowers, decides to leave the life behind. But she doesn’t entirely forsake her past: she opens up a detective agency, which tackles cases for both ordinary people and superheroes.
Known for both comedy and drama – she was part of one of Breaking Bad’s more tragic storylines – Ritter seems like a good fit for the role. She, alongside Colter or whoever ends up as Cage, will eventually link up with Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and Marvel’s chosen Iron Fist for a miniseries called The Defenders, looking to tackle more street-level crime and villainy in New York.