Jessica Jones star David Tennant recently addressed whether he would be interested in returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Kilgrave.
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Tennant was asked if there was any chance he would be open to returning as the villainous Marvel villain in future MCU projects. “From your mouth to Kevin Feige’s ear,” Tennant replied. After ComicBook.com told him that they were putting the idea out into the universe, Tennant added, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. Very good.”
Who is David Tennant’s MCU villain, Kilgrave?
Kilgrave (born Kevin Thompson) was the Jessica Jones Season 1 antagonist. Having been experimented on as a child by his parents, Kilgrave developed the ability to control people’s minds at his will. Prior to the events in the Netflix/Marvel series, Kilgrave had used his powers to control Jessica Jones and keep her as his personal sex slave for several months. Kilgrave is based on the Marvel Comics villain The Purple Man, who was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Joe Orlando in 1964.
Tennant’s Kilgrave is part of the “DefendersVerse” — an umbrella term for the Marvel original series that debuted on Netflix between 2015 and 2019. At the time, the six series created for Netflix — Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher — were considered part of the MCU, with the shows referencing the Battle of New York. However, after Marvel Television was folded into Marvel Studios, the canonicity of the series became unknown, with the latter refusing to outright confirm or deny if the properties are still connected to the wider MCU.
While the Netflix/Marvel series may no longer be canon, that hasn’t stopped Marvel Studios from incorporating key characters (and actors) from the “DefendersVerse” into the MCU. So far, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil has appeared in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, while Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk/Kingpin has guest starred in Hawkeye. Jon Bernthal is also expected to return as Frank Castle/Punisher in the forthcoming Daredevil: Born Again. Ahead of their starring roles in Daredevil: Born Again, Cox and D’Onofrio will appear in the Hawkeye spinoff series, Echo.
All three seasons of Jessica Jones are available to stream on Disney+.
