‘The Punisher’ Star Explains the Series’ Twist on Jigsaw

The second season of Marvel’s The Punisher is now out and the return of Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) also saw the return of Billy Russo (Ben Barnes) in a much more fractured state.

WARNING: There may be minor spoilers for the second season of The Punisher below. Proceed with caution if you have yet to watch the latest season.

As previously shown in promotional images and in the season two trailer, Barnes’ Russo doesn’t look all to disfigured after his run-in with Castle at the end of the first season. In fact, the character hardly has scratches on his face.

In a recent interview with Collider, Barnes revealed that he pitched the show’s writer’s room an idea on making Russo’s injuries primarily mental — over physical — and the powers that be decided to run with it.

“I left them to design the face themselves, but I wanted to see what would happen if it was his brain that was the puzzle pieces and it’s like Memento,” Barnes says. “Otherwise, it’s just mustache twirling and growling back at Jon. I thought it would be so much more interesting if I was just this emotionally completely volatile guy who doesn’t have control of his memory or his emotion.”

“It was take two. But then, the question that posed for me was, do you inevitably and necessarily always end up back where you started ’cause of how you were raised and who you really are, at your core?” the actor continues. “If you’re this hubristic, narcissistic egomaniac at your core, will you always revert to that behavior, no matter what you remember and no matter who you interact with, or is there hope for redemption, even for someone like him? That was a question that I made sure I asked myself, every scene that I looked at. I would write it on the front of all the scripts to be like, ‘Make sure you’re doing that.’ That’s what was most interesting about this to me.”

It’s no secret that the scars had been critiqued in the weeks leading up to the debut of the second season. The virtually scar-less Russo actually led to fan artist maestro Boss Logic coming up with his own take on the character, which caught the eye of Barnes himself.

“Awesome!” Barnes tweeted in response to the fan art. “Hope you’ll see what we were going for when you see the whole show.”

Were you a fan of The Punisher turning Jigsaw’s physical deformities into mental issues? What’d you think of Frank Castle’s sophomore outing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

The Punisher Season Two is now streaming on Netflix.