Friends and enemies welcome Frank back.
Having appeared in the second season of Daredevil portrayed by Jon Bernthal, to critical and fan acclaim, the Punisher was announced as the star of Netflix and Marvel’s fifth project.
This weekend at New York Comic Con, the actors and characters joining the show were announced. Fortunately setting aside any fears that The Punisher would be an absurdist minimalist production chronicling the daily life of an ageing vigilante confined to a dingy flat, eating beans and shooting at tin cans. What a masterpiece we’ll miss.
Daredevil’s Deborah Ann Woll will reprise her role as Karen Page; Matt Murdock’s assistant who befriended Frank Castle whilst working on his court case. While Amber Rose Revah will portray an original character, Dinah Madani; a Homeland Security agent vexed Castle’s murderous pastime. And Rosario Dawson‘s Claire Temple will almost certainly feature in the series at some point, being every crime fighters’ go-to-nurse.
Even though the Punisher is a tad trigger happy and kills almost everyone he comes into contact, he still makes the odd friend or two. Ebon Moss-Bachach, will portray one of them, David Linus ‘Microchip’/‘Micro’ Leiberman; a former NSA agent who assists Castle. Microchip met the Punisher whilst investigating his nephew’s death at the hands of the Kingpin, and from there became his techie/sidekick. His job was to deal with everything that couldn’t be fixed by turning the PC off-and-on again, whether it be: hacking, money laundering, or setting up safe houses and creating false identities. Due to his vicinity to Frank, Microchip also had the unenviable task of acting as his unofficial counselor-even advising he take a holiday now and again because even the Punisher needed a break from bloodshed and gore, every once in awhile. They worked together for years. But eventually, Microchip began to feel the Punisher had gone over the edge; so went and recruited a replacement vigilante, not the wisest move ever. The Punisher and Microchip faced each other one final time at a safehouse, with only the former leaving alive.
Previously thought to be portraying Bobby Saint-a nod to the sons of John Travolta’s villain in the Tom Jane Punisher movie-Ben Barnes was revealed to be starring as Billy Russo; aka Jigsaw. Jigsaw has been the Punisher’s arch-foe from almost the very beginning; after the botched massacre of the Castles, plain-old pretty boy hitman Billy was hired to kill all of their acquaintances, and finish off Frank. That didn’t go well, Frank survived and tracked his would-be killer to a nightclub, made quick work of all of his associates but in an unnatural act of restraint-not putting a bullet in his head-Billy was thrown through a pane of glass, ruining his good looks. Jigsaw was born. Since then, he’s tried to kill the Punisher numerous times, attempted to frame him, and drugged him to turn him into even more of a sociopath. But through it all, the Punisher has never been able to kill his homicidal foe-they should date.
The Punisher is set to arrive on Netflix in 2017, along with Iron Fist and The Defenders.
