‘The Punisher’ EP Didn’t Let Real Life Events Affect Writing on Season 2

The Punisher can be a complicated character to deal with. His “take no prisoners” approach to crime-fighting and fondness for gun violence makes his a magnet for complicated political issues, especially with some of the stories of mass shootings coming out on a semi-regular basis.

This has affected how Marvel and Netflix promote the show in the past, particularly the Las Vegas mass shooting in 2017 that occurred just before the show’s premiere. Showrunner Steven Lightfoot says he tried not to let influence the creative process.

“It’s such a thorny issue, right?” Lightfoot tells ComicBook.com. “I mean, again, season one was completed before Las Vegas happened, and, look, my heart goes out to everyone that was involved in that and these shootings are horrendous acts. But I also think it’s a really complicated thing, relating them to television shows. Do I think these shootings are terrible and whatever can be done to stop them? Totally. And then I think there are TV shows and feature films, and in the end, we just have to write the shows from the character and put good action in the shows. These are action-thrillers, and I think any more than something like The Walking Dead or the John Wick movies, it’s such a longstanding genre, that I think we stand as part of, and it’s an eternally popular genre, and I think that’s one thing. Then I think the issue of these shootings and what do you do about them, is another one. I personally don’t think there’s that much of a correlation.

“I’d love them not to happen anymore, and whatever can be done to stop that…I don’t understand anyone who doesn’t want to do whatever it would take to stop them, but I don’t know that our TV show had anything to do with it either way.”

Lightfoot also compared The Punisher‘s second season to classic westerns.

“I just really like the idea of putting him on the road, and then, to me, Frank’s always felt like a character, in a way, out of the Westerns, he owes as much to Western heroes or antiheroes as anything else,” Lightfoot revealed to ComicBook.com. “It also then gave us an opportunity, I thought, to play with quite a lot of Western tropes with him in the first three episodes. For me, the first three episodes almost constitute a Western movie. Episode one is the saloon, we did our Rio Bravo in episode three, and what have you, and it just felt like it very much said, ‘Look, it’s a new season, it’s a new show, Frank’s in a different place, we’re not just going to start right back where we left off.’”

What do you think about Lightfoot’s comments regarding The Punisher and current events? Let us know in the comments.

Marvel’s The Punisher Season Two is now streaming on Netflix.