Three months have passed since Netflix's The Punisher gave Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle his first brutal standalone journey, and the road to Season 2 is already being paved. The casting process is in high gear, and Netflix announced today that Supergirl vet Floriana Lima, upcoming Scream star Giorgia Whigham and Shooter's Josh Stewart have all been cast for the upcoming season. But who will they be playing?
Floriana Lima, who has been on recent shows such as The Family and Lethal Weapon, is best known to superhero TV fans as Supergirl's science-leaning detective Maggie Sawyer, and she'll be joining The Punisher as another hero-adjacent character. Lima will star as Krista Dumont, who is full of intelligence, compassion and determination in her career as a psychotherapist for military veterans. It's pretty awesome that The Punisher will continue to spotlight and develop its PTSD-centered themes, though we'll have to assume that Krista's job will take a few left turns and downward spirals as she works with the show's soldiers. (Too bad Season 1's Lewis didn't get some time with her.)
Giorgia Whigham, who had notable roles recently in 13 Reasons Why and The Orville, will be playing a character named Amy Bendix, who's described as "a street-smart grifter with a mysterious past." It's hard to infer too much from that, but you can bet there are already assumptions about how the comics tie into it all.
Whenever a recent casting notice revealed the Krista and Amy roles (under different names), fans immediately jumped on the theory that The Punisher would be using these characters to adapt The Slavers storyline from Punisher MAX, in which Frank targets a dangerous group of sex traffickers. The comparisons aren't exact between these live-action characters and the comics' social worker Jen Cooke and victimized prostitute Viorica, but then Season 1 gave us new takes on Micro, Curtis Hoyle, Billy Russo and more. So there's always the chance we'll get an unpredictable reimagining of the Garth Ennis-penned tale.
Finally, we have Shooter star (and Criminal Minds recurrer) Josh Stewart, who joins The Punisher Season 2 in possibly the biggest of these new roles. He'll play John Pilgrim, whose name couldn't sound more American if it tried. John's past saw him turn to a life of violence, which he'd left behind years ago. But his calm exterior is but a shell for the ruthless persona within, and he eventually finds his old life returning once he crosses paths with Frank Castle. Sounds slightly villainous, but in the same way that just about everyone in The Punisher pulls double duty working for both the "good guys" and the "bad guys."
These are the first big new cast additions for Season 2, which means we're probably going to be hearing a few more interesting names floating around in the near future. Will John Pilgrim or one of the upcoming castings be tied to the Punisher villains that fans and Jon Bernthal want to see the most? Stay tuned.
The Punisher Season 1 is currently available to stream in full on Netflix, though we're not quite sure yet when the streaming service will want to get Season 2 to audiences. While waiting, head to our 2018 Netflix schedule and our midseason premiere schedule to see all the other new and returning shows.
