MARVEL'S JESSICA JONES: David Tennant Makes A Chilling First Impression (Spoilers!)



Please note - the following will contain slight spoilers for the premiere episode of Marvel's Jessica Jones.

The first episode of the new Netflix exclusive series Marvel's Jessica Jones was screened to a delighted Main Stage audience at New York Comic Con yesterday. Although those present were asked not to reveal the plot of the pilot, many news and blog sites present have given their own first impressions of the general feel of the show and signposted some of the stand-out performances. David Tennant, who plays villain Kilgrave in the series was one of those singled out for particular note, so we've rounded up a number of responses to his performance. We've tried to avoid plot details, but if you're trying to remain entirely spoiler free, you may want to stop reading now.

Marvel's Jessica Jones follows the fortunes of a former superhero who suffered a massive trauma in her life and consequently decided to hang up her cape and run a detective agency in New York. Krysten Ritter plays the titular Jones alongside David Tennant, with Mike Colter, Carrie-Anne Moss and Rachael Taylor also among the cast. Down on her luck, stressed, alcoholic, Jessica is just trying to take on enough cases to pay the rent and her bar bill. But how will the smart and sassy Jones fare when a dark figure from her past makes a reappearance?

David's character was first seen in a teaser trailer released on Thursday that has already given excited fans the chills. Watch it here, and then read the responses to the full pilot episode below:



Kilgrave's arrival in the series has been received with universal acclaim from those who saw the pilot yesterday - a feat made more remarkable by the fact that he doesn't even make a full appearance in episode 1. Read what some of the other sites had to say here:


  • "Kilgrave is a terrifying…terrifying man. I’m not sure I’ll be able to look at David Tennant the same ever again. He’s rarely on screen and the fact he can do so much in so little screen time…I’m just afraid to see what he can do throughout a whole episode."
Source: Nerd Reactor


  • "David Tennant plays the villain of this season in the form of Kilgrave, a character comic readers know as Purple Man, a fiend who has the simple but devastating power to verbally control anyone he encounters…This is not the squeaky clean world of a PG-13 Marvel feature film and already Kilgrave has exhibited the extent of his power in horrifying ways that Marvel could never display in their movies."
Source: Wrong Reel


  • "There are times during the pilot when its grit makes it feel as if you’re watching a horror series. And that's especially in scenes with Kilgrave, a mysterious and twisted mind-controlling villain.Played by David Tennant, Kilgrave’s appearances are sparse but impactful. He haunts Jones during flashbacks to her past, and jump-cuts his way into many scenes as a PTSD-type hallucination. We never see his face and he often lurks in the shadows behind Jones, making each scene feel like something out of a fear-filled thriller, as opposed to your standard Marvel fantasy."
Source: Mashable


  • "…he doesn’t disappoint…The first episode gives us a clear picture of what Kilgrave is capable of, even though he isn’t seen all that much. It will be interesting to see how Tennant develops the character throughout the season."
Source: Hypable


  • "David Tennant only appears a bit in the premiere as Kilgrave (Marvel's Purple Man), but he also makes a big first impression, in an appropriately scary, nasty way." 
Source: IGN


  • "We’ve known for a while that David Tennant will be playing the villain of the series, Kilgrave/The Purple Man, so it shouldn’t be a huge shock to se that purple plays heavily into the show. And it does, but in a way that is far more unsettling than that color has any right to be."
Source: io9


  • "On the villain front is David Tennant’s gloriously horrific portrayal of Zebediah Kilgrave, aka the Purple Man....you can almost paint him as the Marvel Universe’s Freddy Krueger. His shadow claws across the episode. Like a ghost in the night, his name is mentioned with a hushed terror by every character who knows of him. His powers are downright scary, especially considering the character himself and how he utilizes them...expect to see Tennant ascend to the same level as Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk as one of the cornerstones of villainy in the MCU."
Source: Collider

Marvel's Jessica Jones launches on Friday 20th November. All 13 episodes will be released simultaneously at 12.01am PST / 8.01am GMT.



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