The Punisher actor Jon Bernthal appeared to give Marvel Studios a warning about introducing Frank Castle to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Bernthal’s comments about introducing Castle and The Punisher into the Marvel Cinematic Universe came in a lengthy interview with The Hollywood Reporter (THR), where he was promoting his most recent film, King Richard.
THR’s Brian Davids asked Bernthal, “Marvel has now opened up the multiverse. So any extension of Marvel can now link up with the MCU, whether that’s the Netflix shows or Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies. Do you think your version of Frank Castle would work in the PG-13, action-comedy context of the MCU?”
Bernthal responded by first expressing how much the character of Frank Castle and The Punisher means to him, “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.”
Bernthal then specifically addressed the question, “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.”
Related: Rumor: Marvel Studios Developing New Punisher Series, Could Cameo In Moon Knight
There have been rumors that The Punisher might get his own MCU series and that he could cameo in the upcoming Moon Knight series.
One such rumor came from Small-Screen, where they claim, “The word around the Marvel camp is that Jon Bernthal really wants to play The Punisher again but has been negotiating hard on the contract.”
“They’re developing a series for The Punisher and desperately negotiating to have Jon Bernthal come back to play Frank Castle,” they add.
In fact their source informed them that a script for The Punisher is already in development saying, “It sounds f*****g bad ass! It’s looking like it’ll be pretty violent – like the Netflix show. I think it’ll be the MCU’s most violent show yet. It won’t be a continuation from the previous show though. It sounds as though it’ll be a new start – probably in an alternate timeline.
The outlet also reported, “The source went on to say it sounds like it’s going to be a HARD R. Really violent and gory.”
They also noted, “That Frank Castle will be kind of a villain at the start. And he’ll be on the run.”
On top of this rumor that Marvel Studios is developing a new Punisher series and negotiating with Bernthal, Small-Screen also claimed that “Marvel is looking to introduce The Punisher in the Moon Knight mini-series.”
Their source told them, “Like a cameo or something.”
It’s possible Bernthal could return as The Punisher. Kevin Feige recently told CinemaBlend that if they introduce Daredevil into the Marvel Cinematic Universe the character would be played by Charlie Cox.
Feige said, “If you were to see Daredevil in upcoming things, Charlie Cox, yes, would be the actor playing Daredevil. Where we see that, how we see that, when we see that, remains to be seen.”
What do you make of Bernthal’s warning about getting The Punisher right for the Marvel Cinematic Universe?