A new rumor claims that Jon Bernthal turned down reprising the role of Punisher for Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again Disney+ series because he “hated what they were doing.”
Jon Bernthal as Punisher in The Punisher (2019), Marvel Entertainment
This rumor comes from X user Cameron Silas who shared, “had the pleasure of meeting Jon Bernthal again today! got to talk to him about Daredevil Born Again. He told me he hated what they were doing with DD before the whole rewrite, and he actually turned down the project but now that Karen is back (amongst other things) he’s back in.”
Cameron Silas on X
READ: Rumor: Wilson Bethel To Reprise Role As Bullseye In ‘Daredevil: Born Again’
Silas added, “he told me that he’s apparently been turning down marvel when it comes to playing punisher over and over again because they hadn’t been getting it right, but the small part he now has in DD Born Again is good in his eyes .
Cameron Silas on X
When confronted with reports that Bernthal was indeed going to appear in the series before Marvel announced they were scrapping the show and creatively rebooting it, she wrote, “I thought the same thing but I guess he agreed and then hated it??? And tried backing out? Idk.”
Cameron Silas on X
READ: Vincent D’Onofrio Praises Marvel Studios For Scrapping ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ And Starting Over
In fact, The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit and Aaron Couch reported back in March 2023 that Bernthal would return as the Punisher. The two wrote, “Jon Bernthal is returning to his most punishing role. The actor will reprise Frank Castle, aka antihero the Punisher, in Marvel Studios’ Daredevil: Born Again for Disney+, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.”
Bernthal appeared to confirm the report sharing a still of him as the Punisher from the Netflix series on the same day of the report.
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Not only did Bernthal seemingly confirm he was returning to the role before the creative reboot, but he was also listed as part of the series in a U.S. Copyright Office Public Records document in September 2023.
The listing states, “Main Cast Includes: Charlie Cox as Daredevil, Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin, Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, Margarita Levieva as Heather Glenn, Michael Gandolfini as Daniel Blade, Sandrine Holt as Vanessa Fisk, Nikki M James as Kirsten McDuffie, Geneya Walton as BB Urich, CLark Johnson as Cherry, Arty Froushan as Buck Cashman, and Zabryna Guevara as Shiela Rivera.”
Daredevil seems to be delayed to 2025! pic.twitter.com/2cQDRYT5yj
— Scarlet Witch Updates (@ScarletWitchUpd) October 6, 2023
Bernthal has previously indicated he would not return unless the story honored the character. He told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021, “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 what it really means to willingly die for somebody, [do you understand] 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 wary of the places where that role took me and the world in which I had to live in,” he elaborated.
Jon Bernthal speaking at the 2017 San Diego Comic Con International, for “Marvel’s The Punisher”, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Bernthal continued, “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.”
He concluded, “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.”
The Punisher War Journal #24 (1990), Marvel Comics
Bernthal also told Collider in January, “I think there’s a reason why that character has resonated as deeply and strongly as he has. In the hearts and minds of comic book fans and first responders and people in the military and people all over the globe. I think there’s a little bit of Frank Castle in everybody.”
“He exists very strongly inside me and I care about that character deeply,” Bernthal continued. “I also know that it’s absolutely essential that if we do it, we do it right and we have real sacred integrity to the source material and to what is at the core of Frank. I’m gonna do my absolute best to make sure that, if and when we do it, we do it right.”
He also told ScreenRant, “I don’t know yet; I don’t know. It’s too early to tell. And you know how Marvel is, I really can’t say anything anyway. But I care about Frank deeply, and no matter how much Frank grows, he’s always going to be the same.”
Punisher War Journal #52 (1993), Marvel Comics
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