Jessica Jones Season 2 to Feature All Female Directors
Season one of Marvel’s Jessica Jones was fiercely feminist, intentionally dealing with female issues, fears, and abuses. This was a refreshing dynamic to see on screen, as most superhero television shows and films focus on male superheroes. While having a woman front and center is awesome, what’s even more important is knowing women are also playing key roles behind the camera.
Season one of Jessica Jones was so boldly and darkly feminine because it had a female showrunner — Melissa Rosenberg — who could navigate Jessica’s strengths and weakness from her own unique female perspective. According to Variety’s Mo Ryan, Rosenberg is making an interesting choice to further support women behind the camera in season two. Ryan reported today that all thirteen episodes of Jessica Jones season 2 will be directed by women. This is huge news and completely unprecedented in the world of Marvel Television.
All 13 episodes of @JessicaJones S2 will be directed by women, EP Melissa Rosenberg says at her @transformhwood panel. @tallgirlmel #TH7
— Mo Ryan (@moryan) October 22, 2016
Some of you may be asking: why is this important? Why is this news? Isn’t this reverse sexism? I will answer all of those questions with these statistics. Between 2010 and 2014, Variety sampled the amount of directors who were male, female, males of color and females of color. The diagram below shows these numbers per network, with white male directors in red. Clearly, there is a disproportionate measure here, even for Netflix.
Is it wrong to have more male directors on a show? No, but should it change? Absolutely — especially with a show that so intentionally tackles female issues. The fact that Rosenberg has made the decision to include a slate of female directors means that she is wanting to make sure that Jessica’s deepest motivations, her greatest fears, and her best and worst sides can all be showcased by women, like her. I love it and I hope one day all shows have an equal amount of male and female directors.
Jessica Jones season 2 will debut on Netflix sometime in 2017/2018.