It’s happened, folks. To the surprise of no one, Netflix has finally announced that The Punisher and Jessica Jones have met the same fate as their fellow Marvel series and have been cancelled. JJ still has one season left in the can to air later this year, but this news means that we’ve now seen the last of Frank Castle punishing criminals in this incarnation.
In response to his show’s cancellation – or, technically, in anticipation of it, as it was posted prior to the official announcement – star Jon Bernthal took to social media to share a heartfelt message explaining how much the character means to him and how it was an “honor” to embody the gun-toting hero over the past few years.
Bernthal first appeared as Castle in 2016’s Daredevil season 2, before landing his own spinoff series the following year. The actor’s performance has been unanimously acclaimed and, though the character’s been portrayed in three movies prior, he’s widely agreed to be the best live-action Punisher. A lot of that’s due to the commitment that Bernthal put into bringing a reality to the anti-hero, as can be seen from his reference to the time he spent training with the Armed Services to get into the mindset of a former marine.
Fans will obviously be hoping that this isn’t the end of the line for Bernthal in the role, as there’s always talk of maybe Hulu or the upcoming Disney Plus picking up the cancelled Netflix shows. It’s unclear if that’ll actually happen, but we’ve heard that Marvel can’t do anything with the Defenders for at least another two years, so if there’s a future for Frank Castle, then we’ll have to wait a while to see it.
But as the actor reflects on in his post above, at least we got a chance to see Bernthal give his definitive take on the Punisher over the course of a couple of years, delivering one of the best performances in a comic book show in the process.