Jon Bernthal Says ‘Punisher’ Special Presentation Features “A Version Of Frank” That “The Audience, The Military Community, First Responder Community, The Comic Book Fans Were Really Hungry For”
In yet again attempting to actually show respect to both the character’s source material and the various fan bases that made him so popular, Jon Bernthal has revealed that his main aim in developing his upcoming Punisher Special Presentation was to present a rightfully recognizable version of the titular vigilante.
Bernthal, whose behind-the-scenes attachment to the Special Presentation was confirmed alongside its overall existence just ahead of Frank’s Marvel Cinematic Universe return in Daredevil: Born Again, spoke to his approach to writing the one-man army’s next adventure while speaking to Collider‘s Steven Weintraub during the recently-wrapped CinemaCon2024.
Beginning with the admission, “I’ve said it a million times: Frank is in my bones, is in my heart. I care about him,” the actor proceeded to recall how “In discussing what this thing could be and this sort of version of Frank that I really felt that the audience was hungry for, that the military community was hungry for it, the first responder community, the comic book fans, they were really hungry for it. I presented that version to them, and they encouraged me.”
Surprisingly, Bernthal then revealed that rather than Marvel Studios immediately shutting down his attempt to portray the unfortunately-now-controversial ‘classic Frank’, they instead “encouraged me to keep coming to the table.”
“As we were talking with different writers, the ideas that we were coming up with started to resonate, and I think they saw how much they resonated with me,” he explained. “I got a great group of vets that I work with. One in particular, my friend Nick [presumably Marine Raider Nick Koumalatsos, who Bernthal has previously hosted on his Real Ones with Jon Bernthal podcast], he’s just been incredible. I hope that it goes alright. I don’t like talking about these things because it’s a little bit of bark before there’s a bite, you know? I’m honored and I’m grateful. It’s an incredible group of people that we’re assembling.”
Notably, this is not the first time Bernthal’s passion has been mentioned in regards to the upcoming Punisher Special Presentation.
In confirming the project’s existence to ComicBook.com during the Daredevil: Born Again press tour, Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming, Television and Animation Brad Winderbaum asserted, “[Punisher] a character very personal to Jon. He made that character an icon and he’s working on a Special Presentation with us right now about that character.”
“And that character is driven by a lot of pain and a need to get vengeance and justice, but it’s always interesting where his philosophy lands on how he dulls out that justice,” he added. “To me, that’s the most interesting part about the Punisher.”
Further, as he detailed to to Entertainment Weekly‘s Nick Romano, Bernthal’s dedication to doing right by both Frank and his fans was also the deciding factor in his initial rejecting of Marvel Studios’ offer to return for the original incarnation of Daredevil: Born Again.
“Ultimately, I didn’t see it,” explained the actor of the Disney Plus series’ original pitch. “I didn’t see the version of Frank, and what they wanted from Frank [didn’t] really make sense to me and I thought would not appeal to the fans and wouldn’t be congruent.”
“It was not something I was really interested in doing,” he added. “So we had to walk away.”
“Sometimes you have to be very, very clear with your intentions in this business,” he continued. “You can’t get confused with how much you love something, how much you love playing something, how much you want to do something,” he explained. “You got to make sure you’re serving it. You got to make sure you’re doing justice to the people that believe in it and doing justice to the iterations that have come before you.”
While specific details as to what fans can expect of Frank’s next outing remain under wraps, in speaking to Romano, Bernthal did tease that the Special Presentation would be appropriately ‘real’.
“I went in, I pitched, I gave an outline before I even put pen to page, and I felt like I did not want them to just hand it to me,” he said. “They had read some of my writing, asked to come and do a pitch, so I did. And they’ve held me accountable to every step along the way. I really want to earn this and I really want this to be good. The story that we’ve laid out is, I think, really special. It’s the visceral, psychologically complex, unforgiving, no-holds-barred version of Frank where he’s going to turn his back to the audience. And nothing is easy and all violence has a cost, and we’re going to see that cost. I’m grateful that they’re letting me go to the places that I really want to go.”
At current, Bernthal’s Punisher special presentation has yet to receive an official release date.
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