We all know that David Tennant (‘Doctor Who’) is reprising his role as Kilgrave, The Purple Man, for the second season of Netflix’s ‘Jessica Jones‘ and now the actor has a few details to share about it! The news came from a Q&A panel at Wizard World New Orleans where he spent 45-minutes responding to fans. The topics covered ran the gambit of his career, including the upcoming Amazon series ‘Good Omens,‘ but where he really got into some details was when he spoke about reprising his latest fan-favorite villain.
Interestingly enough, the actor hadn’t read ‘Good Omens’ or ‘Alias’ before taking either role and both are among his favorites to have performed. As it comes to playing Kilgrave:
“I quite liked being Kilgrave, it was fun. Again, I didn’t know the Alias comic books until that came about…I’d always loved Marvel comics but I’d not come across that set of books. It’s just one of those incredible worlds that’s been created…it uses the mythology of the Marvel universe and turns it on its head and then uses this character that’s been around since Daredevil issue 4…taken in this new, dark, twisted direction, it’s just great. When it’s written that well and you’ve got someone like Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, what a treat to get to do something like that.”
I love that he is a self-proclaimed fan of Marvel and had a chance to work on such a wonderful series. His return in the second season was initially supposed to be a surprise for fans and it still isn’t clear if he is actually back from the dead, ever died, or just part of Jessica’s painful past coming to haunt her once more:
“It was definitely the idea that…it would be a secret. Everyone thought that Marvel would keep this a secret, we’d just sneak it out, he’ll just turn up, nobody would see it coming, and I said, ‘That’s great, so we’re not filming outside at all…?’ So then it was no longer a secret. I do appear in Season 2, but more than that I cannot say. I’m not in it that much but it’s telling…”
Not being in it that much almost sounds like he’ll just be there to show he is still around or to be haunting Jones while she’s on another bender from how much she drinks.
One fan did ask if Tennant thought Kilgrave could have been rehabilitated by Jessica. He jokinjokinglyonded that “Yes, she was frankly lazy! If she just put in a bit more effort!”
On a more serious note though he did say that:
“To be fair, he’s a bit of a monster. It’s fascinating playing a character like him because it’s a fascinating conundrum. If everyone in the world acquiesces to your every demand I don’t know that any of us could remain sane..how could you know if anyone was doing something around you because they choose to, as opposed to because they are compelled to.
“That’s one of the juicy things about that character – how can he be normal and how can he know when he’s being a monster? He’s STILL a monster, there’s very little about him that’s easy to love and his very obsession with Jessica is because he can’t make her bend to his will and it becomes something that becomes his downfall. He probably deserved to die, I think that’s fair to say. I don’t think we can blame Jessica, she did what she had to do and she made the world a better place.”
Well, assuming that Kilgrave is only back in memory than she did make the world a better place. We’ve seen him die in the comics multiple times and he always manages to either have faked it or find a way back. Kilgrave can be one of the most dangerous villains in the Marvel Universe and being played by Tennant means it would be great to see him continue on his selfish crime spree on the small screen.
I’m just not sure if it would actually be in the cards.
Do you wish that Tennant’s returning as The Purple Man would have been better left off as a surprise? Will he just be back as a memory in the second season or is he still around with future plans to ruin Jessica’s life for his own amusement? Share your thoughts below!
Source: David Tennant News
