Jon Bernthal To Return As The Punisher In Disney+’s ‘Daredevil: Reborn’ Series
Written by djfrosty on March 9, 2023
Source: Paul Archuleta / Getty
We’re still a ways away from once again indulging in the violent adventures of the MCU’s “Man Without Fear” as Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again series has yet to begin filming. (Shooting begins this month in New York.) But already fans have more reason to get excited as another fan favorite is set to return in the new season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jon Bernthal will be reprising his role as The Punisher in the upcoming Daredevil series, joining Daredevil alumni, Vincent D’Onofrio, as he’s returning as The Kingpin in Born Again as well. While many Marvel fans have taken to social media to celebrate the news of Bernthal’s return, just as many expressed disappointment and anger at the news that neither Foggy (Elden Henson) nor Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) will be a part of Disney+’s “rebooted” series.
Still, as much as we loved what both Karen and Foggy brought to the series, we still much rather see The Punisher involved in the next season of Daredevil than a love interest and comic relief (no shots). With 18 episodes said to be in the chamber for Daredevil: Born Again, we hope The Punisher plays a significant role in what the blind superhero has to fight through in the new series.
Born Again follows Netflix’s Daredevil series that ran for three seasons from 2013-18. That was known as the Netflix era of Marvel television and was back when the series side was not integrated with Marvel’s movie side. Marvel TV, then run by Jeph Loeb, produced a number of series for Netflix, including Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist on top of Daredevil and Punisher. Netflix canceled its Marvel shows ahead of the late 2019 launch of the competing streaming service, Disney+.
Bernthal and his co-stars, it seemed, were done with Marvel. But in January 2021, Marvel boss Kevin Feige told THR he considered the Netflix characters to still be in play, and by the end of the year, Cox was revealed to have a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home and went on to appear in She-Hulk. His Daredevil co-star D’Onofrio appeared in Hawkeye, and both Cox and D’Onofrio are key figures in the upcoming Echo, a series said to set the stage for Born Again.
Hopefully Disney+ doesn’t hold back on the fades that both Daredevil and The Punisher became known for back when they were running the MCU chamber on Netflix. That’s something that Bernthal acknowledged in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter back in 2021 when speaking on Frank Castle joining the official MCU.
“I think if there’s any let up on that character, you do a disservice to the character, to every iteration of the character, to every comic book that’s come before, and to all of the unbelievable fans of the character,” said the actor. “This character means so much to people in the military. So like I said before, it’s not about whether you do the character; it’s about whether you can do it right, and I’m only interested in doing it right.”
Here’s to hoping they let The Punisher, well, punish his enemies in the extreme ways he’s known for.
What do y’all think of The Punisher returning to the Daredevil franchise? Let us know in the comments section below.