Next month, ahead of Jon Bernthal‘s big-screen debut as The Punisher in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” this summer, he’ll be getting his own Marvel Television Special Presentation with “The Punisher: One Last Kill,” and we now know what Marvel Comics storyline they’ll be taking inspiration from for the new blood-soaked streaming project.
Bernthal has confirmed to GamesRadar that the “One Last Kill,” which he co-wrote with director Reinaldo Marcus Green (“King Richard,” “We Own This City”), is taking elements from “Welcome Back, Frank.” Created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, it is considered one of the more definitive tales of the violent vigilante antihero and may confirm the project’s villain is female NYC mobland figure, Ma Gnucci, and her crime family (something rumored back during the project’s production via revealing set photos).
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“Ennis doesn’t apologize for Frank. He subverts the hero genre by being comfortable with the ugly and gray side of heroism, finding truth in the sordid dust of desperation and anger… That honesty was my north star when writing and producing Marvel Television’s upcoming Punisher special,” said Bernthal of his latest MCU entry. “Ennis and Steve Dillon gave us a character with clarity of purpose and absolute commitment, someone who channels loss into action with brutal honesty. That ferocity and vulnerability is what makes Frank endure….’Welcome Back, Frank’ doesn’t ask you to love Frank; it asks you to look at him clearly, without flinching. It asks you to see Frank in all his gruesome glory and then find that same primal motivation within yourself so you can go on that journey with him. Ennis evokes that side of you that wants to go as far as Frank does for what you believe in.”
An official synopsis of that 12-issue comic 2000 storyline via Amazon:
The story is pure mythic archetype, with a several post-modern twists. After a long absence, the Punisher has returned to the streets of Manhattan, and a criminal elite that has grown over that time is set on guard. In particular, Ma Gnucchi and her crime family have been targeted by Castle. Can one man take down an entire criminal organization with heavy armament alone?
While we don’t know what the future holds for Castle beyond 2026, “Daredevil: Born Again” actor Wilson Bethel told Collider that he’s dreaming that his deadly antagonist Bullseye and The Punisher will eventually cross paths. This comes after the actor endorsed the idea of getting his own “Special Presentation” down the line at Disney+.
“It would be a dream for me to get to shoot a Punisher-Bullseye sequence. Hopefully, we do get to do that someday. I think that would be fucking bananas. I think it would be so much fun. Obviously, I knew that that wasn’t in the cards for this season, but my fingers are extremely crossed for that in the future.”
They certainly feel like a pair worth getting together, at some point, but it remains to be seen if they end up sharing scenes in an upcoming episode of “Daredevil: Born Again” in Season 3 or possibly something like a “Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers” sequel (seeing an iteration of The Dark Avengers, villains posing as heroes, being assembled by another U.S. government agency wouldn’t be hard to imagine).
That all said, “The Punisher: One Last Kill” heads to the streaming service on May 12.
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