Marvel aims to take The Punisher to violent heights they have yet to achieve with their current cinematic universe. While we’ve seen a super violent Frank Castle in the past, courtesy of Lexi Alexander and Punisher: War Zone, the result there was more over the top and comic inspired. Netflix’s Punisher takes that violence to a level that both realistic and fitting for a vigilante who is out to fight crime by killing it. Jon Bernthal played Frank Castle the way that many were hoping for on the big screen, paving the way for a solo Netflix series that aims to take the character introduced in Daredevil season two.
According to Entertainment Weekly, The Defenders panel from Friday featured a special appearance from Bernthal and introduced some footage of The Punisher solo series that’s on the way later this year. It hasn’t been made available online yet, but the content clearly sets a tone for what we’re about to get. It expands Frank Castle’s war outside of New York, taking him to Jaurez to snipe at drug lords, bashing bikers in Alabama, and then having an encounter in an airport bathroom back in New York. EW described the footage as “grisly” and Bernthal explained that what we’re going to see will be different than the guy we saw in Daredevil:
“I think with Frank and with the world that he’s very much involved in, he’s a soldier, so I think there will be very much a military component of the show. It will be somewhat centered on that… I think that [the] Frank Castle that was in Daredevil is not in Punisher.”
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ben Barnes, and Deborah Ann Woll will be joining the series when it premieres later in the year and hopefully we’ll get to see that tease footage sooner rather than later. Until then, we can always go back and rewatch Daredevil or hope he makes an appearance in The Defenders.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)