Now We Know Why Punisher Didn’t Return in Daredevil: Born Again

With the arrival of Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had two major things working in its favor that it didn’t already have. The first was diving into a darker and more mature side of storytelling, which its feature films couldn’t get into, given their four-quadrant appeal. As for the second, it meant they could start to bring back the actors that fans had previously fallen in love with during the Netflix era of the 2010s. Not only was Charlie Cox back as Matt Murdock, but the series was quick to reintroduce almost every other star into the MCU in a proper way.

Among those familiar faces that made a big splash in Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 was Jon Bernthal’s return as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher. A focal point of the first batch of episodes, the series even seemed to be setting up his return to the fold with a major post-credit scene surprise, implying his escape from Fisk’s clutches. Bernthal never returned to Born Again Season 2 at any point despite hints that it could happen. Now that the new season has wrapped up, we know why The Punisher didn’t return, and there are two glaring reasons.

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The Punisher Couldn’t Have Appeared in Born Again Season 2 for Two Reasons

Early in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Matt makes a reference to Frank Castle’s status, teasing that if he’d been captured or killed, Fisk wouldn’t be able to resist putting his body on display. Matt goes on to note that he believes Castle is just “out there doing his thing.” Which is an easy hand-wave line of dialogue to indicate that Frank isn’t going to appear, but given the Season 1 finale of Daredevil: Born Again, it’s still hard to believe that Frank wouldn’t still have feelings about cops wearing his symbol as they police the city.

The Punisher’s being missing came up plenty of times during Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, but the finale of the series last night confirmed that, narratively, there was no place for him in the larger plan. In the end, the plot to bring down Kingpin and the Punisher-worshipping Anti-Vigilante Task Force could only be done one way, the “right” way, meaning that Wilson Fisk’s decisions as Mayor had to be dismantled in the court of law and undone justly. The Kingpin was defrocked publicly and had to escape into exile after Matt Murdock was able to finally bring him down, even at the expense of revealing his secret to the world.

That is, of course, a meta reason for why The Punisher couldn’t appear, the same reason why every other Avenger doesn’t just show up in their teammates’ solo movies; if they did, there would be no movie. It’s something that Marvel has had to reckon with for over a decade now, and like the comics, it works.

Naturally, there is another reason that Frank Castle isn’t in Daredevil: Born Again, and it once again has to do entirely with things happening behind the scenes. Jon Bernthal IS set to return as The Punisher in the MCU, but the actor’s schedule has been busy with his next two appearances, making a return for Daredevil: Born Again pretty difficult. Bernthal’s next appearance as the gun-toting vigilante arrives next week with the premiere of the Marvel Special Presentation, The Punisher: One Last Kill. The special, co-written by and starring Bernthal, might make the puzzle of why Castle wasn’t present in Daredevil: Born Again even more difficult to reckon with, given he’s still clearly in New York. That said, the special does appear to have a very cerebral take on the character, so his fractured mind may make it clear why he couldn’t have been involved in the series.

After The Punisher: One Last Kill, though, comes his appearance in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day this summer. The first official trailer for the film seemed to imply at least a decent-sized presence of the character alongside Tom Holland’s webslinger, giving longtime Marvel fans a team-up that they never thought they’d see realized in live-action but see in comics all the time. That said, Castle’s appearance in the film after his own special and its “One Last Kill” subtitle almost certainly makes it seem like Frank Castle won’t stop killing.

In the end, it seems the reasons that Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher couldn’t be back in Daredevil: Born Again were all behind-the-scenes decision-making and not anything natural to the larger story of the show. The good news is that it didn’t actually affect the quality of Born Again at all, and only served to prove how much fans missed him as the character. Luckily, it seems his future is firmly secured.