Rumor: Jon Bernthal Refused To Reprise The Punisher Role In ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Because He “Hated” Disney’s Creative Direction
Jacob Smith
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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is an absolute mess so it should not be surprising to hear that Jon Bernthal reportedly refused to make his return to the Daredevil franchise due to the allegedly atrocious original script for the upcoming Disney+ show.
It has been almost a decade since Marvel’s Netflix shows such as Daredevil, Punisher, and Luke Cage changed Marvel programming by creating a dynamic universe outside of the established MCU films. To this day, Netflix’s Daredevil is still considered to be among the best Marvel-related content that has been produced since the MCU’s inception over 15 years ago.
However, since Disney has ruled in the rights to the Netflix Universe shows back under the House of Mouse’s umbrella, the MCU has struggled to find a way to reintegrate the beloved characters of that universe into their new cinematic home, and the results have been disastrous.
Disney’s attempt to integrate street-level superheroes into the MCU has evolved in character assassinations such as Charlie Cox’s Daredevil appearing in the critically panned She-Hulk series, as well as Vincent D’Onofrio’s reprisal of his role as Kingpin in Hawkeye and the recently released Echo.
Considering the drama revolving around the current state of Disney’s Daredevil: Born Again, the drop in quality from the Netflix TV shows to the Disney Plus Originals has been noticeable.
While some of the biggest characters of the Netflix series have been confirmed to make a return — such as Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll in the roles of Franklyn “Foggy” Nelson and Karen Page, respectively — Disney’s efforts to create new content has been nothing but a headache for creators behind the scenes.
Things were getting so bad that the House of Mouse’s new take on the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen was reportedly forced to undergo massive rewrites in the middle of filming.
Simply put, Disney was forced to scrap the entire series halfway into filming due to its creative direction’s poor reception, and one of the biggest stars who was apparently disappointed in this particular direction Disney was taking the series is Punisher actor John Bernthal.
Tiktok star Cameron Silas took to social media to share an exchange she had with The Punisher star, claiming that Bernthal had revealed that when he was first approached to reprise his role in Daredevil: Born Again, he “hated” what they were doing with the character before the rewrite.
“Had the pleasure of meeting Jon Bernthal again today!” prefaced Silas, adding, “got to talk to him about Daredevil Born Again.”
She then claimed, “He told me he hated what they were doing with DD before the whole rewrite, and he actually turned down the project but now that Karen is back (amongst other things) he’s back in.”
In a follow-up post, Silas went on,”He told me that he’s apparently been turning down marvel when it comes to playing punisher over and over again because they hadn’t been getting it right, but the small part he now has in DD Born Again is good in his eyes.”
In October of last year, reports claimed that Marvel Studios executives as well as head honcho Kevin Feige were scrapping Daredevil: Born Again, after reportedly going through half of the footage from the then-18-episode show while production was on hiatus due to the SAF-AFTRA strikes.
Part of the studio’s new creative direction also purportedly involved the firing of Daredevil: Born Again writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman in an effort to reboot the series, and even bring back Wilson Bethel to reprise the role of Bullseye, in what seems to be an effort to shift the series’ focus to more closely resemble what fans enjoyed about the original Netflix-backed property.
After the show’s original vision failed to impress, the House of Mouse is reportedly shifting the series’ focus to more closely resemble what fans enjoyed about the original Netflix-backed property.
As of this writing, the release of Daredevil: Born Again has been pushed back to a yet-to-be-determined date in either 2025 or 2026, depending on the progression of the reshoots.
Films such as Captain America: Brave New World and the upcoming Blade have been delayed due to production issues. Disney is also struggling to figure out a creative direction for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty — which has since been retitled to Avengers 5 following the conviction of Kang the Conqueror actor Jonathan Majors.
There is no shortage of creative woes for Disney right now. While the studio has made an effort to bring back actors to reprise the roles they played in the Netflix-produced Marvel series, it is unknown how these projects will turn out given the last several years of disappointments.
NEXT: New ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Directors Give Update On Show: “It Is Day Zero”
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