When Jon Bernthal first appeared as Frank Castle on Daredevil Season 2, I knew there was something special in his ability to bring the character to life. Netflix must have seen the numbers and the online chatter about the character, because the streaming network has ordered a spin-off series featuring Bernthal as The Punisher.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Steve Lightfoot will serve as the showrunner. This is the sixth Marvel/Netflix series to be ordered (Daredevil, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, Jessica Jones, and now Punisher), and it appears that Castle will be part of the Defenders series as well.
If you haven’t seen Daredevil Season 2 Episode 4 (Penny and Dime), you really need to drop what you are doing and check out the stellar performance between Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Frank Castle. It really shows the drama that Mr. Bernthal brings to the character. If the series becomes a lot of emotional highs and lows like that episode, I’m sold – well, I’m already sold on the series, but I’ll really be giddy if the creators bring the magic to the screen.
“We want to thank the fans who are clamoring for more of Jon’s stunning and powerful performance as Frank Castle from ‘Marvel’s Daredevil,’” said Executive Producer/Head of Marvel Television, Jeph Loeb, “Now combined with Showrunner Steve Lightfoot’s compelling writing, we’re thrilled to bring ‘Marvel’s The Punisher’ to Netflix.”
There is no word on release date at the moment, but I expect it will be at or around the same time as Iron Fist and hopefully Daredevil Season 3.
