The landscape of streaming platforms continues to change as companies attempt to find the best ways to provide their programming to viewers. We’ve been watching Warner Bros. Discovery make a lot of changes with HBO Max and now Paramount + and Showtime, previously two separate platforms, are looking to merge. As with HBO Max, these changes have resulted in several Showtime projects getting canceled, including Jon Bernthal’s American Gigolo. We don’t know what’s next for the actor, so…maybe a return to the Punisher.
As it happens, at the same point in time that THR reports that American Gigolo is not moving forward with another season, we know that Daredevil: Born Again is getting ready to begin filming a massive 18-episode season that is expected to take the rest of the year to complete. Bernthal likely wouldn’t have been able to commit to a show like that with his other responsibilities, but now that he’s free of them, maybe there’s a chance?
If filming is set to get underway very soon then we can guess that the writing for Daredevil: Born Again, is largely complete. It’s likely too late to do a massive rewrite to include Frank Castle if the character wasn’t already there to begin with. And it’s even possible that Born Again was already set to include a Berthal cameo that he could have done even while filming another show. Of all the characters from the old Netflix Marvel shows that fans have wanted to see return, Bernthal’s Punisher is probably second only to Charlie Cox’s Daredevil himself, and it was in the old Daredevil series that The Punisher first appeared.
With the knowledge that Netflix Marvel heroes can become MCU canon characters once again, it’s at least possible that Bernthal could return as The Punisher, but with his other series responsibilities, it likely would have been difficult for him to return in a significant way. Now, that hurdle has been removed so if Marvel Studios did want to bring The Punisher back, the actor is likely in a position to make that deal, assuming he’d like to return. In the past, Bernthal has implied a willingness to return, as long as the character is handled in the right way.
At some point, we are all but certain to see the Punisher in the MCU and the only question is who will play the role. While the return of Charlie Cox as Daredevil and Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin show a willingness to bring back the actors who played the roles previously, we just don’t have enough of a sample set yet to know if this will be the exception or the rule. We don’t know if Marvel Studios wants Bernthal back, but if it does, now is the chance to make it happen.
