Netflix Marvel Hit 'Jessica Jones' Season 2 Features Long Island Aquarium

Hit Marvel Cinematic Universe show Jessica Jones returned to Netflix with Season 2 on, appropriately, International Women’s Day yesterday, and its fifth episode features scenes filmed at Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead.

The show’s eponymous heroin, super-powered private investigator Jessica Jones, played by Krysten Ritter (Breaking Bad, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23), visits our local aquarium in Episode 5, “AKA The Octopus.” Without giving away any spoilers, Jessica finds herself at “Neptune’s World Aquarium” (see image at bottom of page) to track down a killer and uncover secrets from her mysterious past, including the origin of her powers. Watch the trailer below.

These scenes were filmed over one day last summer on May 31, 2017, but no one could reveal much at the time.

“It was a lot of fun,” Long Island Aquarium Director of Marketing and Advertising Darlene Puntillo says, recalling the 13-hour day of filming. Puntillo, who signed an agreement not to discuss the shoot until after the show aired, says the production team first approached the New York Aquarium, but it didn’t have what they needed, so they opted for the Riverhead location.

They came with a big crew and filmed from about noon on May 31 until 1 a.m. the following morning, Puntillo explains. And now that it’s aired, she says the Long Island Aquarium staff was “really excited” to watch the show on Netflix yesterday. “It was definitely a really cool experience,” she adds.

Offering some insider info about the production, Puntillo says the episode’s titular octopus doesn’t actually live at the Aquarium. In fact, the orange, eight-armed mollusc was actually a very convincing computer generated animation, and the show made its tank a perfect replica of the real seahorse tank at Long Island Aquarium. “It looked great,” she says.

“AKA The Octopus” was directed by Millicent Shelton, one of 13 women who directed the latest installments of Jessica Jones, which had no male directors in Season 2.

Jessica Jones isn’t the first Netflix show to film in Riverhead. Director Jodi Foster shot scenes for another massive hit, Orange Is the New Black, downtown in 2014, and at Riverhead jail. Puntillo says Long Island Aquarium is also not new to television and film. “We get requests pretty frequently,” she reveals.

Watch both seasons of Marvel’s Jessica Jones on Netflix now. You can also see the character in some of Netflix’s other Marvel Cinematic Universe offerings, which include Daredevil, The Defenders, Luke Cage, The Punisher and Iron Fist.

Long Island Aquarium is located at 431 East Main Street in Riverhead. Call 631-208-9200 or visit longislandaquarium.com.