Welcome back, Frank.
The Punisher: One Last Kill is now streaming on Disney+, and Marvel has released a new poster and behind-the-scenes featurette for what is by far the bleakest and most brutally violent MCU project yet.
The featurette spotlights the practical FX that went into the various stunt sequences, including footage of star Jon Bernthal being set on fire for the scene that kicks off Frank Castle's insane rampage, as the antihero deals with dozens of thugs swarming his building.
One Last Kill is a fairly standalone story, but there is one Daredevil: Born Again connection. During one of Castle's PTSD-induced hallucinations, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) shows up to encourage him to continue the fight.
Collider asked director Reinaldo Marcus Green about the decision to bring Page in for this scene.
“Because we use a sort of unreliable narrator, I think it was a great opportunity to bring back some of the characters that fans love in a way that helps us shape his psychological state, and where we find him in this story. Obviously, anyone who knows Karen knows that she is one of the favorites out of all the characters, and I think that there’s clearly some tension between the two, which everyone loves to see on-screen.”
"It’s so organic, and it's so real, and the two actually love each other, and you can see that on-screen just from actor to actor how intense they are when they’re together. So that was amazing to be able to utilize her character to help his headspace. I think she represents his wife in that moment, and it’s such a parallel between him and his real wife and what’s happening in his headspace, and just the connection to another human being. You know, she’s wearing the same sweatshirt as she [his wife] was wearing the night that she was [killed]. So I think all of that is important for the connectivity of Jon’s psychological state in the piece, and having Karen Page come back and do that with us was a lot of fun to see on screen and, hopefully, a lot of fun for the fans as well.”
The Punisher: One Last Kill is currently "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, but its score has dropped to 77%.
About The Author:
Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.