Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ was a resounding success, almost immediately getting the greenlight for a second season, but with a few changes.  Showrunner Steven S. DeKnight has been replaced by Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez, both writers and producers with extensive resumes working on hit shows like ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ ‘True Blood’ and ‘DaVinci’s Demons.’

Jon Bernthal as Shane on ‘The Walking Dead’

The first season saw Daredevil/Matthew Murdock (Charlie Cox) standing up to the rampant crime in Hell’s Kitchen, while The Kingpin/Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) approached from a different direction, gutting the impoverished area in order to rebuild it.  Fans were thrilled recently, however to learn that a new threat was rising in Season Two– The Punisher/Frank Castle played by Jon Bernthal best known as Shane on ‘The Walking Dead.’  And this isn’t a one-off guest spot.  Ramirez sums up the upcoming batch of episodes by simply saying “Daredevil vs. The Punisher.”

Though Daredevil uses violence to achieve his goals, he draws the line at killing… a boundary that The Punisher does not share.  Frank Castle is a former Marine, whose wife and kids were killed in a Mafia shootout in Central Park.  From that moment on, The Punisher was born and declared a one-man war against the underworld, blowing away anyone who stands in his way.

Though The Punisher is technically on the side of good, his lethal means of achieving his goals, often brings him into conflict with different heroes in Marvel Comics.

The deadly antihero has already been the subject of three live-action movies.  Dolph Lundgren played the vigilante in a low-budget film that bore little resemblance to the source material in 1989.  In 2004, Lions Gate licensed the rights to ‘The Punisher’ and released a movie with Thomas Jane in the title role, with John Travolta as the villain.  A sequel was planned, but lingered in development for years before Lions Gate scrapped it and threw together a reboot ‘Punisher: War Zone,’ replacing Jane with Ray Stevenson.

Are you looking forward to these two street crusaders clashing this season?  Do you think they will come together in the end?  Or do you think The Punisher has what it takes to spin off to a series of his own?

Source: Slash Film