What a remarkable journey the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been on since Tony Stark first stepped into the ring back in 2008. Having been born, reborn, and then seemingly born again all in the span of 15 years, one might be forgiven for forgetting that this brave new era of the MCU, from WandaVision to The Marvels to Secret Invasion, had anything to do with the franchise’s past life on Netflix. After all, it seems the studio does at times.
Whether that’s for better or worse depends on where you stand on the state of present-day MCU. For example, plugging one of the MCU’s legacy television antagonists back into the equation would yield results that are far too sinister for where the franchise tends to tread these days, but perhaps it’s that same extreme vileness that would make such a return so enticing.
If you’re in the latter camp, keep those fingers crossed; in a recent interview with ComicBook.com, David Tennant – who portrays the villain in question, Kilgrave – inadvertently revealed to Kevin Feige that he stands at the ready to take that particular phonecall.
From your mouth to Kevin Feige’s ear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great. Very good.
For those of you not in the know about Kilgrave, know that the Jessica Jones antagonist is something of a depraved manipulator who happens to gain the ability to literally control the minds of others, and also happens to become obsessed with the protagonist. Needless to say, his resulting exploits (take that word as you will) would certainly never fly in today’s MCU.
Indeed, the more modern Marvel villains may be rather dastardly in their own right, but as long as the ethos of the Feige era is maintained, we’ll likely never see a villain truly as horrible and provocative as Kilgrave ever again, and if, by some divine intervention, he does come back into the fold, many a question would be raised. Questions that we doubt the franchise is prepared to answer.
Jessica Jones is available to stream on Disney Plus.