‘The Punisher’ Producer On Sharing Characters With ‘Daredevil’

Inside the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe resides the Netflix corner of shows were characters like Matt Murdock, Frank Castle, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand reside. Much like their feature film counterparts, the shows have always managed to share characters, no matter how big or small.

After all, Luke Cage (Mike Colter) first debuted in Jessica Jones before showing up in his own show while villains like Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho) appeared in several shows. One recurring character throughout the “Defendersverse,” if you will, has been police Detective Sergeant Brett Mahoney (Royce Johnson), a character who’s gotten increased roles as of late, especially when talking about season two of The Punisher and its immediate predecessor Daredevil Season Three.

ComicBook.com caught up with The Punisher executive producer and showrunner Steve Lightfoot to talk about the logistics behind sharing characters in the show. In the case of The Punisher and the availability of Johnson to play Detective Mahoney, the production didn’t really have to wait.

By the time production on the latest season of The Punisher kicked off, Daredevil was at least in the process of filming the back half of their season.

“You tend to have your head down, making your own show, so I didn’t really know a lot of what they were doing,” Lightfoot says about Daredevil. “What happened there was, Royce, he came in and did some stuff for us in season one, and I just loved what he does, because he always plays the character, not the cop. He doesn’t play the suit and the badge, he plays the guy, and I think that’s great, when you have someone playing one of those authority figures.”

“As we started working on season two, and we knew we needed someone in that role,” the producer continues. “I just thought rather than writing a new character, I just really like Mahoney and I like what Royce does with it, so why don’t we just use him? And, everyone at Marvel and Netflix was really excited about the idea, and it went from there.”

Were you surprised to see Mahoney get his biggest role yet? What was your favorite part of The Punisher Season Two? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation online by hitting me (@AdamBarnhardt) up on Twitter to talk all things Punisher!

The Punisher Season Two and Daredevil Season Three are now streaming on Netflix.