punisher

As amazing as it was to see Jon Bernthal (‘The Walking Dead’) play Frank Castle in the second season of ‘Daredevil’ he wants to stress that we haven’t met The Punisher yet. It is hard to imagine how Bernthal might be planning to top his role so far but by claiming that we haven’t seen The Punisher yet means that there are going to be a plethora of surprises in store for us with whatever direction the role takes. We found this out when Bernthal was doing a recent interview with Awards Daily where his stellar performance of Marvel’s “one man war on crime” of course came up.

Interestingly enough, while I can’t imagine anyone but Jon filling Castle’s shoes at this point he wasn’t even initially interested in going into anything related to superheroes but:

“I wasn’t desperately trying to get into the comic book world. [laughs] For me, it’s about the human being. He has no superpower. His superpower is his humanity. It’s his drive, his rage, and his loss. I could never have played this part if I weren’t a husband or father. Until you really understand what it’s like to love somebody more than yourself and to willingly give your life for them, only then can you understand what it would mean if they were taken from you.”

We’ve clearly seen this rage take hold of his portrayal of Frank so far but how that affects how he goes up against the criminals compared to Daredevil or Jessica Jones:

“I think when you’re talking about characters like these, the way they fight, what’s motivating the fight is very important. Beating someone up to drag them into jail is different than someone who is exercising his rage on people. The Frank Castle you find in this story is not The Punisher. He’s reeling from the loss of his family. He’s driven by rage and is on a singular mission to find these people who took his family from him, and do it as brutally as possible.”

His favorite scene though had nothing to do with taking down criminals in a hail of gunfire though but one that hit a little more close to home:

“A big part of this guy is a guy searching for himself. He’s got pain, regret and remorse. There’s the graveyard scene where he opens up. He delivers this scene where he explains what it’s like to come home and see his daughter. It was such a gift from John C. Kelley. I had been away from my kids for three months, and I was at the crux of my own torture, going through that….He’s in an unbelievably amount of pain. That speech was the anchor of the season for me.”

I am very excited to hear that we’re going to have a more in-depth take on The Punisher and while his stand alone series is in pre-production date with no release date I do hope they find a way to mention him again going forward before that time. The eventual reunion of The Punisher and The Kingpin is going to be one of the highlights of Netflix when it happens and I expect that it will be one of the most brutal scenes that they’ve shown to date.

Are you looking forward to what they still have in store for The Punisher? Share your thoughts below True Believers!

Sources: Comic Book Movie, IO9

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Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!