After months of rumors and speculation, we finally got word that Jon Bernthal will reprise the role of Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, for the upcoming Disney+ Daredevil: Born Again series last summer.
Though multiple trades reported on the actor's return, his involvement still hasn't been officially announced, and Bernthal has only just spoken about gearing-up as the ultra-violent vigilante again in an interview with Collider.
“I think there’s a reason why that character has resonated as deeply and strongly as he has,” The Origin star said of Castle. “In the hearts and minds of comic book fans and first responders and people in the military and people all over the globe. I think there’s a little bit of Frank Castle in everybody. He exists very strongly inside me and I care about that character deeply."
Bernthal also spoke about what he's planning to bring to the character upon his return - although he wasn't quite willing to confirm anything outright!
"I also know that it’s absolutely essential that if we do it, we do it right and we have real sacred integrity to the source material and to what is at the core of Frank. I’m gonna do my absolute best to make sure that, if and when we do it, we do it right.”
Will Frank Castle be allowed to be as uncompromisingly brutal as he was in his own show? We had been led to believe that Born Again was going to be PG-13, but the recent news that the show will be released under the Marvel Spotlight banner has led to renewed speculation that it will be TV-MA.
Castle and Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) have a lot of history in the comic books, and even though they don't cross paths in Frank Miller's Born Again comic, we already know that the show is going to make some significant changes to the source material.
Initially, Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll were not going to be a part of the series, but after a significant overall, it seems they will reprise their respective roles as Foggy Nelson and Karen Page after all.
Born Again doesn't have a release date, but last week, Vincent D'Onofrio (Wilson Fisk) revealed that filming is set to resume "not long from now... in a few weeks, in fact." The actor also mentioned that the show will have a similar tone to the Netflix Daredevil series.