Ever since his debut in Netflix's Daredevil Season 2, Frank Castle has had one clear goal in mind: to avenge the death of his family by killing everyone involved in orchestrating such a tragic event. Throughout the years, we saw him get ever closer to that goal, and the culmination to many years of hard, brutal, and very violent work finally paid off this year.
For the first time in eight years, Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle was finally the star of his own project, courtesy of The Punisher: One Last Kill. The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe special presentation was all about setting up a new chapter in the antihero's life. Frank now has a new purpose that is more noble than his previous mission, despite being equally violent. So with unlimited possibilities ahead of him, where does The Punisher go next? Well, it seems there's already one idea in mind.
The Punisher: One Last Kill director and star want to make a Punisher movie
During an interview with The Direct, The Punisher: One Last Kill director Reinaldo Marcus Green revealed that both he and actor Jon Bernthal want to see Frank Castle have his own theatrical adventure:
"The only thing that we hope that we were able to accomplish is the demand for more, if we were able to accomplish that. Hopefully, Jon and Marvel will come together to make something worthy of what the audience would want to see out of that character. Moving forward. I think, speaking for myself, I know Jon, and I would love to make a movie, something that could go worldwide and be on screens everywhere. But obviously, that’ll be Marvel’s decision."
While there have been three Punisher movies up to this point, we've yet to see Bernthal's version of the antihero on the big screen. However, that's about to change soon in a very unexpected way. Frank Castle is confirmed to appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and fans already got a glimpse of what his relationship with the wall-crawler will be like thanks to the movie's official trailer.
While not directly, The Punisher: One Last Kill set up the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and Green gave us an insight into how:
"It's really great [to be able to] set him up, like you said, and we know his psychological state before he goes into Spider-Man… I couldn't have asked for better timing for us."
The Punisher's new purpose and role as a protector could influence the story of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, where it has been reported that he will protect a young Jean Grey from the Department of Damage Control. Furthermore, his appearance in the movie could also be a sign of bigger things to come.
It's been highly rumored that Marvel has big plans for its street-level heroes after the Multiverse Saga comes to an end. A big crossover film involving characters like Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Punisher, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and more is reportedly in the works. Since we all know Marvel likes to set up these big events, multiple projects could be released in anticipation of the street-level crossover, including a Punisher theatrical movie.
Maybe Marvel wants to wait and see what the reception is to watching The Punisher in a Spider-Man film before deciding on the character's future. If audiences ask for it, maybe we could see the iconic antihero appear in more projects, including Daredevil: Born Again Season 3 and perhaps even Avengers: Secret Wars. But the ultimate goal? To have an R-rated Punisher movie. After all, we can all agree that One Last Kill was nearly perfect, and the one thing missing was a longer runtime and a little more budget to polish those VFX shots.
Frank Castle's future seems bright both on and off the screen, and we can't wait to discover where he shows up next.
The Punisher: One Last Kill is now streaming on Disney+.
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