The MCU has always treated fans to unexpected crossovers, with characters from one sub-franchise of the Marvel universe frequently popping up in another sub-franchise. There are many memorable examples from across the past decade, too. Bruce Banner in Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange in Thor: Ragnarok, the Punisher in Captain America: The Winter Soldier… Wait, what?
It’s true. Well, kind of. Back around the release of the hit 2014 movie on DVD, directors Joe and Anthony Russo were asked about Winter Soldier easter eggs when they heavily hinted that none other than Frank Castle secretly appears in the film. Joe noted that the driver of a Penske truck that shows up at two key points in the movie was really an important character.
“The man who drives that truck is very highly trained,” said Joe. “He thinks on his own terms. He’s got a plan and a very specific skill set.” Sounds a lot like the Punisher to us. The brothers went on to say that the driver should have his own Marvel One-Shot (remember those?).
The truck first appears in Winter Soldier during Nick Fury’s chase scene with HYDRA agents disguised as police officers. When he blasts through traffic, the fake cops attempt to follow him but a truck comes through the intersection and plows into their car, no doubt killing them. Later on, Jasper Sitwell, secret HYDRA mole, is pulled out of Steve’s car by the Winter Soldier and is thrown onto the road – where he’s run over by the same truck from earlier.
Murder by vehicle isn’t necessarily his style, but mercilessly killing HYDRA operators definitely would be the sort of thing Frank Castle would do. Obviously, the Russos were joking when they said this back in 2014, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t become part of your personal canon if you want it to. The idea that Peter Parker was really that kid from Iron Man 2 started out as a joke and that’s practically been made official now.
In actual fact, the anti-hero didn’t make his MCU debut until 2015’s Daredevil season 2, as played by Jon Bernthal. The Punisher solo series ran for two seasons before Netflix pulled the plug on their Marvel projects. Everyone’s hoping Castle could return, though, so maybe a proper movie cameo is on the cards for the future.