Those of you who have watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier with a real eagle eye for detail may have noticed that there is an extra hero in the film who never gets any mention or acclaim - and he drives a big yellow truck. Both in the Nick Fury car chase sequence and in the scene where Agent Sitwell meets his maker, a driver in a Penske moving truck delivers a helpful big blow - first smashing into a couple of villains in cop cars who cross into an intersection past Fury, and then wiping the aforementioned duplicitous HYDRA agent out of existence. Is it possible that the person in the driver seat of that vehicle is a known yet mysterious new character from the comics being introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
While there has been a good amount of speculation about that idea spreading across the internet recently, I can tell you now that the answer is no. This story originates with an interview Coming Soon did with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, in which the subject of the mysterious Penske driver came up. Asked about the bizarre Easter Egg, Joe Russo joked about the possibility of the character getting hs own Marvel One-Shot short film, being a very talented man who "has a plan plus "a very specific skill set." Some of have taken this as a hint that the driver in the truck could be Punisher, but the key word in the last sentence is "joked." In addition to being pretty clear in the Coming Soon article, I have confirmed with the writer that the director was merely kidding while discussing the Penske driver.
If you are really hungry for a Punisher Easter egg, I will instead point you in the direction of the Mavel One-Shot film All Hail The King, starring Ben Kingsley reprising his role as Trevor Slattery a.k.a. The Fake Mandarin. While interviewing writer/director Drew Pearce last year, he instructed me to look at the names on top of the cells at the beginning of the short. Doing so, I found a hint at the name Luis Allegre:
Doing a bit of research, I discovered that Luis Allegre is a member of the Costa Family, which is the family that killed Frank Castle's family - the inciting incident that led Castle to become The Punisher.
Whether or not we will ever actually see a Punisher movie from Marvel Studios is a mystery, but what is known is that they have the rights to do it. At San Diego Comic-Con 2010, Kevin Feige confirmed that the rights to the character had returned back to its original home after bouncing around Hollywood for years, resulting in three unsuccessful movies. Do you think they should try?
