Jon Bernthal is becoming a veteran of prestige TV. We’ve seen him in awesome shows from The Pacific, to The Bear, and as the crooked Sgt. Wayne Jenkins in HBO’s We Own This City. We’ve also seen him turn in awesome performances on the big screen, more recently in films like Ford vs. Ferrari, King Richard, and The Many Saints of Newark, the latter of which saw him play Tony Soprano’s father.
One of Bernthal’s big breakout roles was back in 2016, when he played the iconic Marvel Comics mercenary, The Punisher, in the second season of Netflix’s dark action-drama Daredevil series. Bernthal was so good that Netflix gave him two seasons of his own show, The Punisher, which earned the actor a pair of Saturn Award nominations.
But Marvel’s Netflix shows, and their casts, fell into a bit of a limbo in 2019 when Netflix canceled them ahead of the launch of Disney+. Last year though, Disney acquired the rights to those shows and their characters, leading fans to wonder which actors might make the crossover into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We’ve seen Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in Hawkeye, and Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk. Both will also appear in the upcoming Echo series, and be tentpoles in the 18-episode Daredevil: Born Again.
And Bernthal is joining that cast too, reprising his role as Frank Castle, according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter.
Why did you choose to keep Charlie Cox and Jon Bernthal as Daredevil and Punisher?
Kevin Feige: pic.twitter.com/kPCuOp7Xbn
— BLURAYANGEL 🦇 (@blurayangel) March 7, 2023
This makes sense because Daredevil and The Punisher are two of Marvel’s more grounded, street-level stories, and their characters often crossed paths in the comics — either teaming up or facing off. Matt Murdock and Frank Castle rarely take trips to outer space or the multiverse; more often than not, their fights are in the dark shadows on city streets.
The same is true for Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, though we haven’t heard any official word on if actors Krysten Ritter and Mike Colter are joining the MCU.
Aside from Finn Jones’ portrayal as Danny Rand (aka Iron Fist), the majority of Marvel fans seemed to be pretty happy with how the Marvel Netflix shows were cast. Those shows also featured David Tennant as the Purple Man (aka Killgrave), Wilson Bethel as Bullseye, Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple (who might be the Night Nurse), Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Micro, Ben Barnes as Jigsaw, Rob Morgan as Turk Barrett, Theo Rossi as Shades, Simone Missick as Misty Knight, and Alfre Woodard as Black Mariah.
It doesn’t seem like all of these characters will be making the transition over though. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson will not return to the new Daredevil series as Karen Page and Foggy Nelson. Both characters are important in the Daredevil comics, but its unclear if Marvel will recast them or write around their absences. Iron Man director and Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau portrayed Foggy in the 2003 Daredevil film starring Ben Affleck. Maybe Favreau can come back.
Daredevil: Born Again is supposed to hit Disney+ in the spring of 2024.
To hold us over until then, here’s a scene from season two of Netflix’s Daredevil show. NSFW language ahead.
I hope we get a scene between Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and Charlie Cox’s Daredevil as good as this scene but maaan this is tough to beat pic.twitter.com/DIsuVi1gbo
— Sammy J (@SammyJReacts) March 7, 2023
