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We already knew Jon Bernthal was returning as Frank Castle/The Punisher in "Daredevil: Born Again", but now it looks like he'll be getting his own project. According to a new report from EW, the Punisher will get his own special presentation on Disney Plus.
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Head of Marvel Television, Brad Winderbaum, said of the Punisher special, "It's like a shotgun blast of a story, but also has all the pathos and emotion that you want out of a Frank Castle story."
Not content to just act in the special, Bernthal is co-writing the script with his "We Own This City" collaborator, director Reinaldo Marcus Green. Green has been tapped to helm the special.
Beyond Winderbaum's description of the special, there's no word on the actual story.
Assuming no other similar specials are released before The Punisher's, this will make the third project Marvel Studios releases in its special presentation format, and the first it's released since 2022. The first special was 2022's "Werewolf by Night", followed later that year by "The Guardian of the Galaxy Holiday Special".
Bernthal first played Frank Castle/The Punisher in the second season of Netflix's "Daredevil". His own series, "The Punisher", premiered the following year and lasted for two seasons.
Before the special presentation comes to Disney+, Bernthal will return to the role of the Punisher in "Daredevil: Born Again", whose first two episodes premiere next week on the streaming service. As Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Charlie Cox recruits Frank Castle to his side in the new series "because he needs something done that he's unwilling to do," according to Winderbaum. "And Frank, a bull in a china shop, drives right to the heart of the matter."
Bernthal and Cox won't be the only veterans of "Daredevil" returning for the sequel series. They're joined by Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin, Wilson Bethel as Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, and Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Fisk.
We still have yet to see The Punisher interact with the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it's unclear if we ever will. While it's one thing to see Bernthal's Frank Castle in scenes with Daredevil or some of the other former Marvel Netflix heroes, it's a little tougher imagining him wrestling intergalactic warlords or sentient killer robots.
The Punisher has proven a tough nut crack for creatives adapting Marvel properties. Bernthal is the fourth actor to portray him in live-action. He was preceded by Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane, and the late Ray Stevenson.
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