In a move that should be surprising to no one (especially not if you read my previous article on the subject), it is being reported by source Newsday’s Verne Gay that Netflix and Marvel have decided to scrap their original plans for the release of ‘The Punisher’ and push the show back a while due to the tragic events in Las Vegas this past weekend.
If you recall, they had never actually given us a release date for the show, shrouding the premiere in secrecy as part of their PR campaign since the plot will also be about conspiracy theories and government cover-ups, only letting us know ‘The Punisher’ would be launching on Netflix in the fall of 2017. The original plan had been to premiere the pilot and a second episode this weekend at New York Comic Con for the fans (with a simultaneous event taking place in Paris), and then do a surprise release of the rest of the series this weekend on Netflix, similar to how some musicians do surprise releases of new albums. It would have been very interesting to see how this strategy would have worked, especially since there was so much build-up for ‘The Punisher,’ (though it might have been hard to get the same binge-watching audience, as some of us plan weeks in advance to set aside time for one of these releases so we can watch them all through and review). And now, they’ve pushed it all back, with Gay’s report saying that the studios are simply looking to release the series sometime “later in the fall.”
No one can really blame Marvel or Netflix for this decision either, as ‘The Punisher’ is violent, bloody, and full of guns, none is which is likely to go over too well with the American populace right now after the traumatizing events in Las Vegas. Still, there are a lot of folks out there who want to see this show, so it will be interesting to see how long Netflix and Marvel wait to release it. Feel free to share your thoughts on what an appropriate time to wait is down in the comments below.
