Marvel is doubling down on girl power! Variety reports the entire 13 episode second season of Marvel’s Jessica Jones on Netflix will be directed by women.
Executive producer and showrunner Melissa Rosenberg discussed the all-female director slate on Friday, at USC’s Anneberg School for Communication and Journalism, during a panel at the Transforming Hollywood 7: Diversifying Entertainment conference.
Here is more, from Variety:
Rosenberg said that in the second season of the superhero show, she had wanted to increase the number of female directors — a goal that Marvel was completely on board with, she noted. Given how in-demand many women directors are these days, she and her fellow producers had set their sights on booking women first, she said, and contracting male directors later in the pre-production process.
But then someone else involved in the production — she didn’t specify who — floated the idea of booking only women as directors. Rosenberg was honest about the fact that she hadn’t contemplated that concept prior to that conversation, but she said she quickly jumped at the opportunity.
When it comes to behind-the-scenes personnel, hiring an inclusive array of people was “a conscious decision and it’s very important that showrunners do that,” she said.
That directing roster puts “Jessica Jones” in very rarified company, as one of the few one-hour dramas to have an all-female list of directors. Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar,” which airs on OWN, also had only female directors during its debut season.
What do you think? Are you a fan of the Marvel’s Jessica Jones TV series? How do you think having all female directors will affect the second season of the superhero drama?
I agree. Michelle Rosenberg emphasizes the importance of showrunners hiring an “inclusive” crew. She, then, “makes a conscious decision” to hire EXCLUSIVELY female directors. This exemplifies the pervasive hypocrisy within current gender and other diversity politics. Diversity zealots too often espouse inclusivity principles (e.g. “equality for all!”) but fail to act according to them. Rather, such diversity warriors hire with intentional bias towards certain races, gender, etc., and intentionally exclude other races, gender, etc. That’s not equality; it’s discrimination. Ideally, a generic company with 100 executives would have 50 men and 50 women, as well as a reasonable diversity breakdown.… Read more »
How do you know without regard to merit. I’m sure they’re not hiring any woman that just walks in. I don’t see a problem with it after the been excluded for so long they do it. Nothing wrong with having some projects with just females only after so long of it being just men.
If a show-runner or producer ever announced that they only planned to hire male directors, the internet would explode. I want to see more female directors, but this announcement irks me. The show’s producers have to follow the law like everyone, despite their good intentions.