Jon Bernthal made his long-awaited return as Frank Castle during tonight's episode of Daredevil: Born Again, but it seems The Punisher wasn't going to be a part of the original version of the Disney+ series - because the actor had decided to walk away!
During an interview with EW, Bernthal spoke about reprising the role after playing the volatile vigilante in two seasons of the Netflix series and his own Punisher spin-off show.
"It was like, Let's see if this works. Let's see if there's a real openness and a hunger to let Frank be what Frank is, which is dark enough to have the courage and the boldness to turn your back on the audience and to make it difficult, to make it enormously psychologically complex and to steer away from any cuteness or humor and to really go full bore."
Though he doesn't specify, it may have been a more toned down take on Castle that ultimately led to Bernthal's decision to decline Marvel Studios' offer to return for the pre-creative overhaul Born Again.
"Ultimately, I didn't see it. I didn't see the version of Frank, and what they wanted from Frank [didn't] really make sense to me and I thought would not appeal to the fans and wouldn't be congruent," the actor explains. "It was not something I was really interested in doing. So we had to walk away."
"Sometimes you have to be very, very clear with your intentions in this business," he adds. "You can't get confused with how much you love something, how much you love playing something, how much you want to do something. You got to make sure you're serving it. You got to make sure you're doing justice to the people that believe in it and doing justice to the iterations that have come before you."
Thankfully, Marvel agreed, bringing on new lead writers and Bernthal's The Punisher scribe and executive producer Dario Scardapane as showrunner. "They really brought me into the conversation," Bernthal says. "We really got specific about where Frank is psychologically, where Frank's at physically."
What did you make of Castle's return in tonight's Daredevil: Born Again? Drop us a comment down below.
In Marvel Television's Daredevil: Born Again, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened abilities is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.
The show also stars Margarita Levieva, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, with Ayelet Zurer and Jon Bernthal. Dario Scardapane is on board as showrunner.
Episodes are directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, and David Boyd; and executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Sana Amanat, Chris Gary, Dario Scardapane, Christopher Ord & Matthew Corman, and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead.