A new TV series for the Marvel Cinematic Universe is rumored to be in development that will pit Charlie Cox as Daredevil and Jon Bernthal as Punisher against Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin.
This new rumor comes from scooper Mikey Sutton at Geekosity who declares, “Charlie Cox‘s Daredevil and Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher will face Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in an upcoming MCU series.”
Sutton previously scooped that a Daredevil series was in development all the way back in August 2020. At the time he claimed, “While Marvel Studios awaits for his Netflix hold to expire, discussions have been tossed around on what to do with Daredevil besides another TV series, which will happen on one of Disney’s streaming networks.”
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Even before that, in May 2020 Sutton claimed Marvel was looking at developing a Daredevil series for Hulu.
He noted, “First of all, they’re leaning on bringing the series to Hulu instead of FX. The budget will be higher but not on the level of what they’re doing for Disney+.”
“They would also like some of the rougher-edged MCU characters to possibly guest on the show like Nick Fury, for instance,” he added.
Sutton also claimed that Feige had his own vision for Daredevil and that it was likely he would team up with Moon Knight, Punisher, and Ghost Rider to form the Midnight Sons.
“There are no plans for Daredevil to join the Avengers, tho. Marvel Knights? Close. They have talked about Daredevil joining forces with Moon Knight, the Punisher, and Ghost Rider, among others, in the Midnight Sons,” Sutton stated.
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It appears this new scoop is related to those previous scoops and this showdown between Punisher and Daredevil against Kingpin will arrive in a Daredevil show. However, it’s unclear where this Daredevil show will be available to watch.
In his most recent scoop about this series pitting Daredevil and Punisher against Kingpin, Sutton claims his sources tell him it will be for Hulu instead of Disney+ although he notes that could change if Disney brings their Star media hub that is available for Disney+ subscribers outside of America to the United States. The Star hub includes mature content.
It is possible the show might end up on Disney+ either way. When Disney acquired Fox, then CEO Bob Iger told investors that they were open to creating a Marvel-R brand that would include films like Deadpool.
Iger said, “[Deadpool] clearly has been and will be Marvel branded. But we think there might be an opportunity for a Marvel-R brand for something like Deadpool. As long as we let the audiences know what’s coming, we think we can manage that fine.”
In fact, they might not even need a Marvel-R brand. While promoting the upcoming Moon Knight series, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige told Empire, “It’s been fun to work with Disney+ and see the boundaries shifting on what we’re able to do.”
“There are moments when Moon Knight is wailing on another character, and it is loud and brutal, and the knee-jerk reaction is, ‘We’re gonna pull back on this, right?’ No. We’re not pulling back. There’s a tonal shift. This is a different thing. This is Moon Knight,” he said.
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The bigger problem with a series that includes the Punisher is how faithful Marvel will be to it. They are clearly willingly to completely change the character as seen in their promotion for their upcoming Punisher series.
The book sees Frank Castle becoming the warlord of the criminal organization known as The Hand. He’s also received an entirely new symbol and has abandoned his firearms in favor of samurai swords.
That willingness to abandon the core of the character might make it tough for them to land Bernthal if they haven’t already.
Bernthal offered a warning to Marvel Studios about a new Punisher adaptation back in December saying, “That character, in particular, has real, real, real deep, deep meaning for me and resonance in me. He’s really in my heart, man. He’s really in my bones. I’m enormously protective of that character.”
“I’ve said before that there’s nothing in this world more important to me than my wife and my kids, and only until you understand that kind of love and what it really means to willingly die for somebody, [do you understand] what it would be like if somebody took them from you,” he continued.
He elaborated, “That’s a road and a darkness and a rage that really, really scares me and brings me to places that I’ve worked the last 20 years to get away from. So I was really grateful, respectful and weary of the places where that role took me and the world in which I had to live in.”
He would add, “That being said, that’s where that character needs to be. It needs to be a level of darkness. I think if there’s any let up on that character, you do a disservice to the character, to every iteration of the character, to every comic book that’s come before, and to all of the unbelievable fans of the character.”
He then warned, “This character means so much to people in the military. So like I said before, it’s not about whether you do the character; it’s about whether you can do it right, and I’m only interested in doing it right.”
Do you want to see Daredevil and Punisher face off against Kingpin?