JESSICA JONES Gets a Best Friend in Her Show; Marvel TV Head Introduces Trish Walker



Everyone needs a best friend including heroes. In JESSICA JONES, the title character gets one in the form of a potential future hero.

Marvel Television head Jeph Loeb spoke about Jones' bestie Patricia 'Trish' Walker, via IGN, who will be played by actor Rachael Taylor. Comic book fans will recognize the name but is it unknown right now if Walker will become Hellcat in JESSICA JONES.

"When we first sat down to talk about who Jessica’s world was going to be populated with, [showrunner] Melissa [Rosenberg] talked about the kind of character that she wanted [Jessica Jones] to be friends with and that it was important that there was somebody in her life who made it all look easy but not necessarily felt that way. One of the things that we’ve talked about from the very beginning is that, as many people know, the show at one point was referred to as AKA Jessica Jones and we used to refer to the AKA of it. Every single person has an AKA in their life, which is this is the person they’re presented by and this is who they actually are. How true is that in life? Here we are, wonderful professionals who are talking elegantly all the time and you can imagine that’s how we are all the time. We never have a bad day and we never say anything wrong. That kind of looking at that situation. When we started talking about who in the Marvel universe fit that category, one of the things that we talked about was the character of Patsy Walker or as we refer to her as Trish. It was literally a five-minute conversation where we said we have this character and this is who she is and all of a sudden Melissa lit up and went 'We can do that. That’ll work.'"

Loeb also touched on the topic of how Rosenberg brought an ability to really highlight Jones and Walker's relationship.

"I think we’re very lucky to have Melissa as a writer who really grasps the insight of what it is to have a friendship with a woman and the way that two women can actually be competitive and friendly and love each other and hate each other and have a history with each other and having grown up with three sisters and no brothers, I watched that dynamic happen all the time and every single thing that these two actors are doing always rings true. They’re some of my favorite scenes to be able to see Rachel and Krysten work together."

If you're not familiar with Trish Walker / Hellcat in the comics, she is not a super powered hero but she is a martial arts expert and is given a suit that enhances and heightens her natural abilities to near superhuman levels.

JESSICA JONES premieres exclusively on Netflix in the fourth quarter of 2015.