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Season 1 of Jessica Jones was revolutionary for honestly portraying the experience of mental trauma suffered by rape survivors within an industry where rape scenes are often included merely to shock or titillate (we’re looking at you, Game of Thrones). With Season 2, we have more to celebrate: all 13 episodes will be directed entirely by women.
Melissa Rosenberg, the series’ executive producer, made the announcement last Friday at the 7th annual Transforming Hollywood symposium’s “Diversifying Entertainment” panel. During the discussion, Rosenberg shared that she had intended to increase the number of woman-directed episodes for the show’s second season, but wasn’t planning to book women directors exclusively until a colleague suggested the idea. With Marvel’s approval, the plan moved forward, and the search for directors has begun.
We probably don’t need to tell you this, but Rosenberg’s decision is a big freakin’ deal for women in the entertainment industry. According to a recent study by the Director’s Guild of America, women directed a scant 17% of TV episodes for the 2015-2016 season. (For female directors of color, that figure plummets to 3%.) By featuring exclusively women directors, Jessica Jones is taking charge in the push towards an equitable 50%. Ava DuVernay’s groundbreaking show Queen Sugar was the first one-hour drama to be directed exclusively by women, and we can only hope that Jessica Jones won’t be the only series to follow suit—in an industry where stories are told by men 83% of the time, it’s crucial that women are offered a seat at the table more often.
Season 2 of Jessica Jones premieres 2018 on Netflix
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