After persistent rumors, it was recently confirmed that Jon Bernthal will reprise his role as Frank Castle/The Punisher from the now defunct Netflix Daredevil series for Marvel Studios' upcoming Disney+ "reboot," Daredevil: Born Again.
We still don't have any official plot details to go on, but a new rumor from insider CWGST may give us some idea of how the ultra-violent vigilante will factor into the show.
As we've already heard, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) will reportedly attempt to put his life as the Man Without Fear behind him and focus on doing his part to help the city as an attorney while his nemesis, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), holds office as the mayor.
However, "when corrupt police start to misuse The Punisher’s logo, the Devil inside Matt is itching to be unleashed."
Though Castle isn't actually mentioned here, it's not too much of a stretch to assume that The Punisher isn't exactly going to be pleased by these cops' actions, either.
New cast members include Michael Gandolfini, Nikki M. James and Sandrine Holt.
We recently learned that Holt will play Vanessa Fisk, while James is believed to be playing Kristen McDuffie. Gandolfini's role hasn't been officially confirmed, but there's speculation that he'll either be playing a younger take on Fisk in flashbacks, or the villain's son. Another, more recent rumor claims that he'll actually be a take on Butch, a gangster who learned The Kingpin had an affair with his mother.
The show will be loosely based on the '80s Marvel Comics series of the same name by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli, but is not expected to be an overly faithful adaptation. Despite some significant changes to the story, "Daredevil versus Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, remains the focal point."
Born Again will be PG-13, but Marc Jobst, who helmed some key episodes of the Netflix show, simply doesn't believe Cox, D'Onofrio and Bernthal would have agreed to return if they didn't think it was going to work.
"So I’ve got no idea what they’re doing and how they’re approaching the Disney version of those worlds," he said in a recent interview. "I can’t imagine that Charlie, Vince and Jon would sign up for something that they felt was anodyne. They just wouldn’t do it. So in some form or another, Disney must have persuaded them to say, 'This is a journey worth coming on.'"