It feels like forever since we got our non-injured eyes on new episodes of Daredevil on Netflix, but that will all change soon when Season 2 premieres next month. And with that premiere comes the small screen debut of Frank “The Punisher” Castle, as played by Jon Bernthal. A character whose popularity is massive enough to warrant his own standalone adventures, Punisher seemed to be in the running for his own spinoff on the streaming service. But now it looks like all those rumors and conversations were basically just pipe dreams, and there’s apparently no actual plan to give Punisher his own spotlight. According to Marvel TV’s Executive Vice President Jeph Loeb:
I think that’s something that people are speculating on, as opposed to something that’s actually happening. It’s certainly our hope that any of our characters will be embraced and that people want to see more of them.
I know there are a lot of people out there that probably want to bring out oversized machine guns and start putting bullet holes in everything that’s the same color red as Netflix’s logo, and I certainly understand the outrage. After all, rumors about a Punisher series were happening even before Bernthal was cast, but while those were easy to put aside as early development babbling, it was just as easy to embrace the later news that seemed to confirm Netflix’s confidence that Bernthal’s anti-hero could lead his own show. And now Jeph Loeb had to go and poo poo all over our ecstatic anticipation in his comments to Digital Spy.
Now, it’s entirely possible that Loeb is just playing the cautionary messenger here, putting out potential fires before they begin, even while legitimate conversations may be happening about the Punisher’s future on Netflix. I seriously doubt Daredevil Season 2 will get roasted by critics and viewers, but it’s absolutely reasonable for everyone behind the scenes to hold off on championing and rewarding a character that the masses have yet to react to. I fully expect for something more concrete to come out in the two or three weeks after viewers have had time to sit down and binge Daredevil’s sophomore season.
Of course, what if Punisher gets on the show, kills a bunch of innocent people and outs Daredevil’s identity, and is just a miserably negative piece of shit? Is this the kind of guy we would actually want to see an entire series from? Absolutely! The Punisher could do the most heinous shit imaginable – like karaoke Kanye West songs in the style of Gilbert Gottfried – and people would still want to see more of him.
Regardless of how much we’ll see of The Punisher in the distant future, he’ll get his first introduction on Daredevil when Season 2 hits Netflix on Friday, March 18. To see when everything else is premiering in the next few months, check out our midseason TV schedule.
