Jon Bernthal Reveals He Has Doubts About The Punisher's Inclusion Within The MCU
The internet has been set ablaze in recent weeks thanks to the many rumors about fan favorite actors returning to their old Marvel roles. From Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire supposedly picking up the mask once again in Spider-Man: No Way Home, to Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio both highly likely to return as Daredevil and the Kingpin sooner than you might think. In the wake of Endgame, it seems that Marvel's new strategy to generate hype is to collect actors instead of infinity stones. One of which may prove to be more challenging than the others. The Punisher won't play unless Marvel and Disney are prepared to sink their hands in the muck.
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Jon Bernthal, who debuted as Frank Castle in the Netflix side of the Marvel universe, has expressed interest in returning as the homicidal hunter, but only if he feels the material stays true to the characters R-rated sensibilities. In the course of his run with the character, Bernthal has tackled prostitution, drug use, PTSD, organized crime, war crimes, human trafficking, and quite memorably beat a pedophile to death with a baseball bat. The MCU has had dalliances with these topics with Iron Man and Captain America, but those films never approached the issues to the extent shown in the Punisher's appearances in Season 2 of Daredevil and his own titular show. Speaking to THR, Bernthal had this to say on the likelihood of a return:
"That character, in particular, has real, real, real deep, deep meaning for me and resonance in me. He’s really in my heart, man. He’s really in my bones. I’m enormously protective of that character. I’ve said before that there’s nothing in this world more important to me than my wife and my kids, and only until you understand that kind of love and understand what it really means to willingly die for somebody, and what it would be like if somebody took them from you. That’s a road and a darkness and a rage that really, really scares me and brings me to places that I’ve worked the last 20 years to get away from. So I was really grateful, respectful and weary of the places where that role took me and the world in which I had to live in. That being said, that’s where that character needs to be. It needs to be a level of darkness. I think if there’s any let up on that character, you do a disservice to the character, to every iteration of the character, to every comic book that’s come before, and to all of the unbelievable fans of the character. This character means so much to people in the military. So like I said before, it’s not about whether you do the character; it’s about whether you can do it right, and I’m only interested in doing it right."
Bernthal's concerns are warranted. While the MCU has never been hesitant about it's heroes killing, the Punisher inherently requires a greater degree of up-close bloodshed than Disney has ever been comfortable with. It seems unlikely that Disney+ will advertise their latest Lego Star Wars adventure alongside Frank Castle shooting a mugger in the face. The deciding factor in all of this may rest in the upcoming Moon Knight series, which features a vigilante that shares the same violent tendencies and dark subject matter Bernthal is concerned about being denied. If that series can execute it's lead accurately to the source material, while still managing to keep within the realms of Disney’s guidelines, then perhaps there will be room after all for the skull-branded badass in the MCU.
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Source(s): Screen Rant