Marvel legend Joe Quesada has officially declared what we all knew: Jon Bernthal is the perfect actor to play The Punisher. Quesada, the Marvel Executive Vice President and Creative Director, discussed the character’s portrayal in the recent Netflix series with Marvel Entertainment and their most recent segment of Prop Store and called Bernthal the perfect choice for the skull-emblazoned antihero.
You would be hard pressed to find many (if any) Punisher fans who disagree with Quesada’s endorsement of Jon Bernthal as Marvel’s violent vigilante. Bernthal was more than capable of imbuing the intimidating, often merciless Frank Castle with a sense of genuine pathos, with Quesada going on to reveal the moment that best highlights the actor’s talent.
“Jon was this up-and-coming star, you know, we’d seen him in a bunch of different things but we just knew that this was Frank Castle. It’s very easy, I think, to portray a character like that in a very one-dimensional manner. But number one, he had scripts that were incredibly deep and rich and Jon brought so much to the character of Frank.”
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Introduced as the beloved Marvel vigilante in the first season of Netflix’s Daredevil before leading two seasons of The Punisher, Jon Bernthal proved himself to be such pitch perfect casting as Frank Castle that fans have been calling for his return ever since. While nothing has been confirmed so far, rumors persist that Marvel Studios plans to bring back the likes of Charlie Cox as Daredevil and Jon Bernthal as The Punisher. Recent reports have claimed that they will be added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the same actors playing the characters, each of which will undergo a “soft reboot.”
“I’m not going to spoil it. But there’s a moment in the last episode of Season 1 (“Memento Mori”) – where [Bernthal] recites a line – and he recites it right down the barrel of the camera. That’s a Frank Castle I’ve never seen before but was very familiar at the same time. And that’s a credit to Steve and his team, as well as to Jon and the way that he brought that home.”
For what it’s worth, Jon Bernthal himself has expressed his devotion and connection to the character, saying he would love to reprise the role of Frank Castle so long as it’s done properly. “So I was really grateful, respectful and weary of the places where that role took me and the world in which I had to live in,” the actor said earlier this month. “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. 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.”
Jon Bernthal most recently appeared alongside Will Smith in the sports biopic King Richard.
