(SeaPRwire) – After a considerable wait, supporters of Jon Bernthal’s portrayal of The Punisher have been richly rewarded over the past year. The character first appeared in the second season of Netflix’s original Daredevil series and received a brief spin-off in 2017 that ran for two seasons. Following the cancellation of the Marvel-Netflix shows, he was absent for six years before he and his violent tactics returned in the debut season of Daredevil: Born Again.
The character is now scheduled to feature in the forthcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day, appearing briefly in the trailer as an annoyance while Spider-Man stops a high-speed pursuit. The extent of his role is currently unknown, though it is presumably substantial enough to explain his absence from Daredevil: Born Again season 2. Nevertheless, the merciless vigilante will not be completely absent from television this year; it was recently revealed that he will headline his own streaming special, The Punisher: One Last Kill, premiering one week after the Born Again season finale.
Although many assumed that Marvel Studios reviving Charlie Cox’s Daredevil would result in the series and its connected properties making a major impact on screen, this has not yet fully materialized. While the first season of Daredevil: Born Again features Wilson Fisk becoming mayor and enacting laws against masked vigilantes—a storyline drawn from Chip Zdarsky’s 2019 Daredevil run and the Devil’s Reign crossover—it seems this will not affect Brand New Day, given that Spider-Man is seen receiving a key to New York City in the trailer. Additionally, Frank Castle is last seen imprisoned at the conclusion of Born Again’s first season, though his final scene strongly suggests his escape.
Previously, the film division of the MCU could ignore the television series while they were under Netflix’s control, but now that they fall under the Marvel Studios banner, there is no justification for such oversight.
With a significant plot gap looming over the franchise—specifically regarding the fate of Fisk’s anti-vigilante legislation—it falls to The Punisher and this new special to resolve the continuity issues, in addition to whatever other violent antics Frank engages in. Leaked set photos from filming last year showed a dark-haired woman in a wheelchair, whom fans quickly identified as potentially Isabella ‘Ma’ Gnucci, the ruthless matriarch of the Gnucci crime family who holds a grudge against Frank for murdering her sons and leaving her to be attacked by polar bears from the Central Park Zoo.
Although this character has not appeared on screen in any of Bernthal’s Punisher projects, Frank Castle has committed numerous murders; the story could link the deaths of her sons to events from the Netflix series, or perhaps connect her to the victims of Frank’s assault on Wilson Fisk’s corrupt anti-vigilante task force in Born Again.
Contingent on the events of season 2, it is also possible that Spider-Man’s warm reception in NYC, Frank’s public return, and the emergence of the Gnucci crime family are all consequences of the potential downfall of Fisk’s mayoral administration, potentially replaced by someone more sympathetic to vigilantes. Currently, fans are left with rampant speculation, as it appears these loose narrative threads will not be officially tied together until One Last Kill is available for streaming.
The Punisher: One Last Kill — a one-off TV special — premieres on Disney+ on May 12th
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