I’m convinced this is the only way Kilgrave can return — without cancelling Jessica Jones’s victory

Kilgrave was Jessica Jones’ ultimate nightmare, the walking embodiment of trauma, manipulation, and loss of agency. When Jessica finally snapped his neck at the end of season one, it marked the culmination of her fight to reclaim her life, her mind, and her sense of power.

Ever since that moment, fans and creators alike have toyed with the idea of bringing Kilgrave back. After all, he’s one of the most chilling, unforgettable villains Marvel has ever put to screen.

However, reviving Kilgrave directly, through resurrection, cloning, or even multiversal trickery, would betray Jessica Jones’ journey. It would shatter her hard-won healing and erase the finality that gave her victory meaning.

And yet, I firmly believe there is a way to let Kilgrave’s shadow return without tearing apart Jessica Jones’ arc. Not through him, but through his legacy.

Why Kilgrave’s death in Jessica Jones season 1 matters

Kilgrave’s death was the emotional peak of Jessica Jones’ story. She wasn’t fighting a generic supervillain or some world-ending threat. She was fighting the man who had robbed her of her agency, who had twisted her mind, who had made her question her own strength. Killing him wasn’t about saving the world. It was about saving herself.

This is why any direct return of Kilgrave would feel like a betrayal. Jessica won back her autonomy. Reversing that, even through clever narrative devices, would undo the hard-earned progress she made as a character, thus reducing her growth to a temporary victory, something the writers could casually erase for the sake of shock value.

We’ve seen other shows and franchises fall into this trap, and we know that bringing back defeated villains because they’re popular often cheapens the emotional stakes. For Jessica Jones, where the entire story revolves around survival and healing, resurrecting Kilgrave would strike at the heart of everything the series accomplished.

The idea of legacy and what can return

The key to bringing Kilgrave back lies not in his physical return, but in his legacy. Kilgrave left deep scars, not just on Jessica Jones, but on the world around her. His manipulation twisted lives, relationships, and entire communities. That shadow doesn’t disappear just because he’s gone.

Instead of forcing Jessica to relive the same nightmare, future storylines could explore how Kilgrave’s influence lingers. His daughter Kara, for example, could embody the next chapter of that darkness, not as a recycled villain but as a new figure shaped by the damage he left behind.

This approach offers something richer than a simple resurrection, creating space for fresh conflict while honoring Jessica’s growth. Facing Kilgrave’s daughter wouldn’t erase Jessica’s past victory; it would test how far she’s come and whether she can confront new threats without falling back into old patterns.

Who is Kilgrave’s daughter in the comics?

Kilgrave’s influence continues through his daughter, Kara Kilgrave, better known as Persuasion or the Purple Woman. In the comics, Kara inherits her father’s mind-control powers, but her path is far from a simple continuation of his evil.

Kara’s story is shaped by tension and conflict. She carries the burden of a name associated with manipulation and abuse, yet her own choices are far more complicated. She has walked the line between villain and hero, sometimes seeking redemption, sometimes consumed by anger.

Her time with the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight showed moments of hope, but her journey has always revolved around the question of whether she can escape the shadow of her father’s legacy.

Introducing Kara into a live-action Jessica Jones story would offer something new. Her presence would challenge Jessica on deeper emotional levels, forcing her to confront the fallout of the past without erasing the victory she fought so hard to claim.

Avoiding the Kilgrave 2.0 trap

The biggest risk of introducing Kara Kilgrave into the Jessica Jones universe is reducing her to a retread of her father, a lazy echo of the past rather than a character with her own voice.

But Kara’s comic book arc already proves there is a different path. While Kilgrave chose manipulation and control as tools of domination, Kara has spent her life resisting that legacy.

Her time with Alpha Flight, her battles against villains like the Master of the World, and even her brief venture into perfumery, selling fragrances ironically tied to her power, show a woman struggling to define herself against the purple stain left by her last name.

Kara’s story is not about continuing Kilgrave’s work but navigating the wreckage he left behind. She has inherited the power, but not the purpose. That makes her dangerous in a different way, less predictable, more volatile. She cannot be slotted into the role of villain or hero, and that ambiguity is precisely what Jessica Jones stories thrive on.

If the show dares to let Kara be messy, torn between control and agency, it opens up something far more compelling than a standard revenge plot. It becomes a mirror. Not of Kilgrave, but of Jessica herself.

Bridging the Netflix legacy with the MCU's future

There is also a larger opportunity here. The MCU is already weaving the Defenders back into its continuity, with Matt Murdock appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Echo. And with Jessica now returning to the second season of Daredevil: Born Again.

Kara Kilgrave could be a bridge between the gritty legacy of Jessica Jones and the brighter, younger world of characters like Kamala Khan and Kate Bishop. Kara's story is inherently generational, one shaped by trauma passed down and the struggle not to repeat it.

Imagine her caught between two worlds: Jessica’s history of survival and the optimism of heroes trying to reshape the future. Her presence could spark difficult questions for the MCU’s new guard.

How do you work alongside someone whose father destroyed lives? How do you fight beside a woman who could bend you with a word, but chooses not to? That tension between fear, legacy, and choice would not just expand Jessica Jones’ universe. It would deepen the MCU itself.

The purple stain and the body that remembers

Purple was never just a color in Jessica Jones. It was a weapon. Kilgrave wrapped himself in it, lavender suits, violet lights, interiors soaked in the hue, as a constant reminder of the control he held over Jessica’s body and mind. It was not fashion. It was branding. The color became shorthand for trauma, woven into the visual language of the series with brutal efficiency.

So when Kara Kilgrave steps into the frame with naturally purple skin, she does not wear the legacy. She is the legacy.

That is what makes her presence so unsettling and so narratively rich. Kilgrave chose the color as a symbol of dominance. Kara was born with it, marked from the start by something she never asked for. Her body becomes a living contradiction.

She carries the aesthetic of her father’s reign, but not the intent. For Jessica, seeing Kara is like looking trauma in the face again, but this time, it's complicated. This purple does not threaten. It questions. It forces confrontation not with power, but with memory.

A clever visual storyteller could use this to devastating effect. Scenes where Jessica struggles to meet Kara’s eyes. Moments where bystanders recoil from her appearance, not because of what she has done, but because of what she reminds them of.

Purple becomes more than a callback. It becomes a scar on the world that Kilgrave left behind, visible in every room Kara walks into. And if she's trying to use that legacy to do good, or at least to live, then every step she takes becomes an act of resistance. Not against Jessica, but against the story written into her skin.

Why Kilgrave’s return only works through his legacy

Kilgrave should stay dead. His death marked the moment Jessica Jones reclaimed her agency, her identity, and her power. Bringing him back would not just undercut her arc, it would flatten the emotional weight the story built so carefully.

But stories don’t end just because a villain is gone. Kilgrave’s shadow still lingers, and through his daughter, the narrative has a chance to explore that legacy without undoing Jessica’s hard-won victory. Kara Kilgrave offers a new kind of threat, one shaped by the past but not defined by it, challenging Jessica in ways that force her to face how far she has come.

If there is one way Kilgrave can return, it is not through resurrection, multiversal gimmicks, or memory tricks. It is through the unresolved echoes he left behind, the damage, the inheritance, the next generation trying to figure out what to do with the wreckage. That is where the most powerful, honest storytelling lives.