In light of the news that Jon Bernthal will return as his iteration of The Punisher in the upcoming MCU series Daredevil: Born Again, there's nothing wrong with seeing how the Marvel assassin could potentially look now that he'll be reunited with Charlie Covx's Matt Murdock eight years after their first encounter.News of Bernthal's return as The Punisher for Daredevil: Born Again broke four years after his standalone Netflix series was canceled. A fan art image gives Marvel fans a preview, or perhaps a re-introduction into what Bernthal's iteration of The Punisher will look like now that he too will be included in the reboot or continuation of the Daredevil series that is coming out next year.The Rahal Arts Twitter page tweeted out an image of Bernthal's Punisher holding both a gun and what looks like Dardevil's mask. The tweet had the following caption, "one batch. two batch. penny and dime. excited for the punisher return in daredevil born again. #ThePunisher #johnbernthal #DaredevilBornAgain." The "one batch, two batch" quote references what The Punisher said before killing someone because it was based on the favorite book of his tragically murdered children that he uses to remember them.
This will be Bernthal's first time returning to play The Punisher since 2019 when he played the titular character in the show's second season on Netflix. Bernthal's iteration of The Punisher has interacted with Daredevil before, having been a supporting character in Daredevil season 2. Frank Castle is considered an anti-hero in the show's second season because he is a hitman with a bloodthirsty desire for revenge, which makes him a strong contrast from Daredevil, who beats up criminals to keep them off the streets but also hopes that they rehabilitate their lives. This led to one of the most well-known arguments in superhero media as to whether criminals should be given the chance to change or be killed on the spot.
Now that Castle has been confirmed to be coming back in Daredevil: Born Again, all eyes will be on how he factors into the story. He's been a stonecold killer in every single movie or television show he's appeared in, and that's because studios have granted the freedom for him to be a killing machine. Now that The Punisher will be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where none of the heroes have intentionally killed anyone, they have to integrate a character who is pretty much the exact opposite of that.
Luckily, Marvel Studios is already one step ahead of this by, at the very least, not re-casting Castle with anyone else. Bernthal encapsulated the cold, calculated killer that Castle is, who does what he does not because he enjoys killing but because he's driven by the tragic death of his entire family. Bernthal captured the entirety of his tragedy, and now it's on Disney to organically slide The Punisher in with Daredevil: Born Again. Considering they're not doing too hot with some of their most recent projects, a lot's riding on this.
Daredevil: Born Again is slated to be released on Disney Plus in 2024.
Source: Rahal Arts/Twitter