With “Jessica Jones,” Marvel finally gets a female star in the form of Krysten Ritter (“Breaking Bad”), who portrays the titular former superhero as she tries to rebuild her life as a private eye in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen.
The 13-episode drama (premiering Friday) is the second of Netflix’s five planned Marvel TV series, and also serves as a prequel of sorts to 2016’s “Luke Cage,” introducing viewers to Marvel’s first black title character, played by Mike Colter (“The Good Wife”). Jessica first spies Luke through her long-range zoom lens and after a chance meeting, sparks fly — a connection that intensifies once the two realize they both have special abilities.
“He’s a man of mystery,” Colter tells The Post. “Jessica doesn’t know a lot about him [and] he’s not giving her a lot of information because he has a past that he’s trying to hide. He’s on the run. They have mutual acquaintances but they don’t find that out until later in the storyline.”
In the Marvel comic books, Jessica and Luke eventually have a daughter together, but Colter can only acknowledge that in the series “there is a working relationship and there is romance” — and that the two characters are undeniably drawn to each other.
“Because they’re two broken souls, in a sense, [there are] holes to be filled emotionally and physically,” he says. “They’re very opposite but there’s something about them that really does connect on a real base level … That relationship, where it goes, is something we’ll have to wait and see.”
Jessica, for her part, is haunted by the demons of her past and desperate to destroy her nemesis, the mind-controlling Kilgrave (David Tennant from “Doctor Who” and “Gracepoint”). Along the way she also seeks help from manipulative lawyer Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss, “The Matrix”) — who only aids Jessica when she can get something in return — and her best friend/famous radio host Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor, “666 Park Avenue”).
Like Netflix’s first Marvel series, “Daredevil,” “Jessica Jones” is grounded in realism — these heroes don’t run around in capes or show off flashy superpowers. In one scene, Jessica awakens to find her charger wasn’t plugged into the outlet overnight and her cellphone is dead. (Superheroes — they’re just like us!)
“I was totally happy with the fact that there wouldn’t be a lot of special effects. Not that we don’t have any, but we don’t rely on that to tell the story,” Colter says. “These characters happen to have powers, but it’s really more about their emotions, their day-to-day lives, as opposed to who they’re actually going after and fighting.”