'Jessica Jones' season 2 news, spoilers: network censorship, secondary characters

Looking back on the freshman season of Netflix's "Jessica Jones," it may be hard to believe that the show was working under some strict censorship guidelines, including restrictions on cursing and nudity.

The Marvel-based superhero series was so well-written and deftly acted that it didn't have to resort to shock factors to deliver the level of emotion and depth of story it needed to portray.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, "Jessica Jones" creator and showrunner Melissa Rosenberg talked about crafting the series and the restrictions that were placed on it by Netflix and Marvel.

According to Rosenberg, while Netflix didn't impose many limits, Marvel was very protective of its brand and had some specific rules that the show had to abide by in its first season.

"I also work with Marvel, and Marvel has a brand and their brand is generally PG-13," she said. "They've kind of let us go to PG-16."

As the "Jessica Jones" boss recounted, this meant that the characters couldn't drop curse words, especially not its central character, Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter).

"Sometimes I would be like, 'Please just let me put one!'" Rosenberg added. "Never. But what's funny is that people said, 'Wait — she didn't say f—? I could have sworn she did!'"

According to the show's creator, luckily, Ritter could deliver the kind of performance that didn't need words to convey what the character was feeling at the moment. As Rosenberg explained, Ritter didn't have to curse because her look said it all.

The "Jessica Jones" showrunner also revealed that while the show had sex scenes, they were not allowed to show any nudity — another thing that has surprised fans in retrospect. As Rosenberg told THR, the trick to making the intimate scenes seem really graphic was in how they were shot and acted.

As for the upcoming "Jessica Jones" season 2, Rosenberg has revealed that Jessica may be taking a step back from the spotlight to give the secondary characters their turn to shine.

Speaking with Nerdist, the "Jessica Jones" boss said that when it returns with its second season, the show will pull back from Jessica a bit such that the main storyline for each episode doesn't always have to revolve around her. This will give audiences the chance to get to know characters such as Trish Walker (Rachael Taylor) and Will Simpson (Wil Traval) better.

"You have to earn secondary character stories," she said. "You have to flesh them out enough so they can eventually carry stories of their own, which is very much what season 1 was about."

Netflix has not announced the official release date for "Jessica Jones" season 2.