Note: This story contains spoilers from “Daredevil: Born Again” Season 2, Episode 8.
Krysten Ritter has known for ages that Jessica Jones would return for “Daredevil: Born Again” at some point. The when and where moved around a bit, but there was one key piece that had to be part of the plan: Luke Cage.
After Mike Colter and Finn Jones were spotted on the set of “Daredevil: Born Again” Season 3 last month, many assumed that they wouldn’t appear this season — especially after Ritter returned in Episode 6 with a daughter, but no Luke. We find out in Episode 7 that he’s overseas, “doing the lord’s work” so Jessica doesn’t have to.
But, in Tuesday night’s finale, the man himself returned — seemingly permanently, as Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) took over his job. It’s a brief reunion in the final moments of the episode, where Luke, Jessica and their daughter Danielle are all together, back at Alias Investigations. And according to Ritter, Colter’s return always came alongside hers.
“It was really about … when we’re bringing [Jessica] into ‘Daredevil,’ let’s justify it. Let’s see what she’s doing,” she explained to TheWrap. “And that felt like a character — the most important thing for her character, there, was to bring him.”
As Ritter remembers it, she first discussed the reunion with executive producer Sana Amanat, who opined that it’d be great to get Colter back for “Daredevil: Born Again.” Ritter immediately volunteered to call him personally.
“I’m very close friends with Mike in real life, and there’s such a difference between how we are when we’re on my back porch, versus how we are when we’re in character,” she said. “Getting to see when he first walked through the door, I felt emotional, and it was a big day.”
“It was like, Oh my God. It just felt like no time had passed, but also this, like, just magical thing that we’ve gotten to do together. Their relationship is just so special. So that was really exciting. I think the whole crew and everybody there felt it as well. And it was just so delicious.”
Jessica Jones and Luke Cage have a beloved relationship in the comics, but it didn’t get much screentime in either of their Netflix shows. The two hooked up once during the first season of “Jessica Jones,” and eventually fought alongside each other as Defenders, but we didn’t leave them in a place that indicated they’d not only be together, but have a daughter together in “Born Again.”
“It’s a storyline that we had always wanted to explore and are excited about,” Ritter said. “Then [showrunner] Dario [Scardapane] let me really have a hand in the shaping of that scene, because I know the character so well, and I know Mike and Luke’s character so well, and it was really important to me that we really captured that kind of unspoken chemistry and spark and electricity that Jessica and Luke have just naturally.”
For Ritter, it’s really just “wild” to be spending time with these characters again 10 years on from the Netflix series that brought them all to screen. She was thrilled to step back into Jessica Jones’ leather jacket.
“Just the fact of playing a character for this long, and getting to grow with her, and know something and someone so deeply, it’s a very rare and unique experience,” she said happily. “And then that, alongside with doing it from the beginning with Charlie [Cox].”
“Charlie and I had a very unique, similar shared experience, in that we were the stars of these shows that were the same, and were on the same sound stages, with the same crew, and then we had the same experiences, the same hours, the same press cycles. It’s so rare to have something that you can really connect with another person, because this job can be very singular, and very isolating and lonely, and I’ve always had my counterparts who went through the same exact rollercoaster.”
Now the question is, what does that lingering final shot on Alias Investigations mean? Could we be getting even more Jessica Jones? Only time will tell, but hopefully we’ll get some answers in “Daredevil: Born Again” season 3.
“Daredevil: Born Again” is now streaming on Disney+.
