Marvel's The Punisher, or simply The Punisher, is an American web television series created for Netflix by Steve Lightfoot, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. It is set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films and other television series of the franchise, and is a spin-off of Marvel's Daredevil. The series is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios and Bohemian Risk Productions, with Lightfoot serving as showrunner.
The series revolves around Frank Castle, who uses lethal methods to fight crime as the vigilante "the Punisher", with Jon Bernthal reprising the role from Daredevil. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ben Barnes, Amber Rose Revah, Daniel Webber, Paul Schulze, Jason R. Moore, Michael Nathanson, Jaime Ray Newman, and Deborah Ann Woll also star. A television series centered on the Punisher received a put pilot commitment at Fox in 2011, but that project fell through. In June 2015, Bernthal was cast as the character to appear in the second season of Daredevil. Development on a spin-off titled The Punisher began by January 2016, before the second season of Daredevil was released. In April 2016, Marvel and Netflix ordered the series, confirmed Bernthal's involvement, and announced Lightfoot as executive producer and showrunner. Filming began in New York City in October 2016, and concluded in April 2017.
The Punisher premiered in New York City on November 6, 2017, with the full season of thirteen episodes released on November 17 on Netflix. In December 2017, the series was renewed for a second season.
Video The Punisher (TV series)
Premise
Frank Castle, known throughout New York City as "the Punisher" after exacting revenge on those responsible for the death of his family, uncovers a larger conspiracy beyond what was done to him and his family.
Maps The Punisher (TV series)
Cast and characters
Main
- Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle / Punisher:
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach as David Lieberman / Micro:
- Ben Barnes as Billy Russo: Castle's former best friend from when he served in USMC Force Recon. Russo runs Anvil, a private military corporation.
- Amber Rose Revah as Dinah Madani:
- Daniel Webber as Lewis Wilson: A young veteran struggling with his new life as a civilian. He attends group therapy sessions with other servicemen under Curtis Hoyle.
- Paul Schulze as William Rawlins: The director of covert operations at the CIA, who crosses paths with Castle due to their time in Afghanistan.
- Jason R. Moore as Curtis Hoyle: A friend of Castle, one of the few people who knows he is alive and former US Navy Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman, who became the leader of a therapy group after losing the lower part of his left leg in combat.
- Michael Nathanson as Sam Stein: A Department of Homeland Security agent and Madani's partner.
- Jaime Ray Newman as Sarah Lieberman: David's wife.
- Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page:
Recurring
- Shohreh Aghdashloo as Farah Madani: Dinah's mother who runs a successful psychiatric practice.
- Jordan Mahome as Isaac Lange: A military veteran who attends Hoyle's support groups.
- Kelli Barrett as Maria Castle: Castle's deceased wife.
- Aidan Pierce Brennan as Frank Castle Jr.: Castle's deceased son.
- Nicolette Pierini as Lisa Castle: Castle's deceased daughter.
- Ripley Sobo as Leo Lieberman: David and Sarah's daughter.
- Kobi Frumer as Zach Lieberman: David and Sarah's son.
- Tony Plana as Rafael Hernandez: The director of operations for Homeland Security and Madani's mentor.
Guest
- C. Thomas Howell as Carson Wolf: A corrupt senior DHS agent, supervisor of "Operation Cerberus," and Madani's supervisor who crosses paths with Micro and then later Castle.
- Delaney Williams as O'Connor: A phony Vietnam veteran and NRA member who attends Hoyle's support groups.
- Geoffrey Cantor as Mitchell Ellison: The editor-in-chief of the New York Bulletin and Page's boss. Cantor reprises his role from Daredevil.
- Shez Sardar as Ahmad Zubair: An Afghan policeman who worked with Madani.
- Jeb Kreager as Gunner Henderson: A Marine Corps veteran and member of the Cerberus Squad that worked alongside Castle and later went reclusive upon returning home.
- Clancy Brown as Ray Schoonover: Castle's commanding officer in Afghanistan. Brown reprises his role from Daredevil.
- Tim Guinee as Clay Wilson: Lewis Wilson's father who works to help his son get adjusted to his civilian life.
- Rob Morgan as Turk Barrett: A low-level criminal who operates in Hell's Kitchen and Harlem. Morgan reprises his role from previous Marvel Netflix shows.
- Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Marion James: A Deputy Director of the CIA.
- Andrew Polk as Morty Bennett
- Rick Holmes as Stan Ori: A U.S. Senator who is interviewed by Karen Page on his gun control views.
- Royce Johnson as Brett Mahoney: A Sergeant at the NYPD's 15th Precinct. Johnson reprises his role from previous Marvel Netflix series.
- Houshang Touzie as Hamid Madani: Dinah's father.
NY1 anchors Pat Kiernan, Roma Torre, and Stacy-Ann Gooden cameo as themselves.
Episodes
Production
Development
In October 2011, ABC Studios sold a script based on the Punisher to Fox, who gave the project a put pilot commitment. The series would be an hour-long procedural following NYPD detective Frank Castle, "whose alter ego is that of a vigilante seeking justice for those failed by the court system." Ed Bernero was attached as executive producer, but by May 2012, the project had not moved forward. A year later, the character's film rights reverted to Marvel from Lionsgate. In June 2015, Jon Bernthal was announced as cast as Frank Castle in the second season of Marvel's Daredevil on Netflix. The series was the first of several live action series provided to Netflix by Marvel Television and ABC Studios, with subsequent series featuring Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist all leading up to a miniseries based on the Defenders.
By January 2016, ahead of the Daredevil season two release, Netflix was in "very early development" on a spin-off series titled The Punisher, and was looking for a showrunner. The series would be centered on Bernthal as Castle, and was described as a stand-alone series, outside of the series leading up to Marvel's The Defenders. Head of Marvel Television and executive producer Jeph Loeb implied that Marvel Television had not instigated the development of the spin-off and were focusing on making "the best 13 episodes of Daredevil season two" at the time, but did say, "I'm never going to discourage a network from looking at one of our characters and encouraging us to do more ... If we are lucky enough that through the writing, through the direction, through the actor that people want to see more of that person, terrific." Loeb stated a month later that the reports about the potential spin-off were "something that people are speculating on, as opposed to something that's actually happening."
In April 2016, Netflix officially ordered a full 13 episode season of The Punisher, confirmed Bernthal's involvement, and named Steve Lightfoot as executive producer and showrunner. Loeb, Cindy Holland, and Jim Chory also serve as executive producers. A second season was ordered in December 2017.
Writing
Lightfoot noted that "anti-heroes with dark pasts, that are morally grey, are always interesting to write." On deciding to work on The Punisher, Lightfoot stated, "I was drawn to a guy who is dealing with grief - how does he do that?... We talked a lot as we developed the show that once you take hold of the hand of violence it's impossible to let it go. That relationship to violence really interested me, not just the fact he has the ability to use it but also the cost of it." Bernthal stated the series would be "loose with chronology" for the character, depicting events before and after the events of Daredevil season two.
Casting
Bernthal had been cast as Castle in June 2015 to appear in the second season of Daredevil, and was confirmed to be reprising the role for the spin-off in April 2016. That September, Ben Barnes was cast in the series in an unspecified series regular role. The next month, set photos revealed that Deborah Ann Woll would reprise her Daredevil role as Karen Page, Barnes was announced as playing Billy Russo, while Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Amber Rose Revah also joined the series, as David Lieberman / Micro and Dinah Madani, respectively. At New York Comic Con, Bernthal confirmed Woll as a co-star. At the end of October, Marvel announced the additional casting of Daniel Webber as Lewis Wilson, Jason R. Moore as Curtis Hoyle, Paul Schulze as William Rawlins, Jaime Ray Newman as Sarah Lieberman, and Michael Nathanson as Sam Stein.
In August 2017, Shohreh Aghdashloo was revealed to be portraying Farah Madani, Dinah's mother, in a recurring role for the series. Rob Morgan reprises his role from previous Marvel Netflix series as Turk Barrett.
Filming
Filming began on October 3, 2016 in Brooklyn, New York, under the working title Crime. Additional filming took place in Astoria, Queens in December 2016. Filming wrapped on April 9, 2017.
Music
In April 2017, Tyler Bates was announced as the composer for The Punisher, after previously composing for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. In order to "get into the dark corners of the Punisher's mind," Bates played "more of a broken blues" guitar, which was augmented with talkbox effects and other "guitar noises", along with guitar-vol and melodica. On this style, Bates said, "The rough edges and broken nature of [music like this] leaves a great deal of space for emotion and interesting color - and a bit of an attitude. Otherwise it's not going to be an authentic expression of the idea. There's a darkness in there that I'm happy to tap into."
Release
The Punisher was released on November 17, 2017 on the streaming service Netflix, worldwide. The 13 hour-long episodes were released simultaneously, as opposed to a serialized format, to encourage binge-watching, a format which has been successful for other Netflix series. In July 2016, Netflix COO Ted Sarandos stated that The Punisher would not debut until 2018 at the earliest, after The Defenders released on August 18, 2017, but that October, Marvel confirmed a 2017 release instead.
In early September 2017, Dominic Patten and Denise Petski of Deadline.com commented on the lack of specific release date for the series at the time, calling it "an unusual", "rare move for Marvel and Netflix, who usually give a lot of lead-up to the launch of the high profile and much anticipated series." The pair felt with the increased marketing of the series, it would release "sooner rather than later". Allison Keene of Collider felt Marvel and Netflix holding back the release date was "really weird and unnecessary... If you're excited for this show, you'll watch it whenever it appears. For TV editors who have to plan reviews and other content, it's just irritating." Polygon's Susana Polo felt Marvel and Netflix were waiting for their scheduled panel at New York Comic Con 2017 during the first weekend of October to reveal the series' release date, as the convention had been used in previous years to reveal "breaking fall Marvel/Netflix news". It was reported that Netflix had been planning a surprise "drop" release of the series in mid-October 2017, mimicking a strategy from the music industry where an artist's album is released "with little or no fanfare", after their panel at New York Comic Con 2017, but decided to delay the release to later in 2017 after the Las Vegas shooting and subsequently cancelling the panel. Two weeks later, the November 17 release was announced.
Regarding the decisions made concerning the New York Comic Con panel and the series' release, Loeb said that they were made "specifically because it was a week after a horrible, horrible incident. It hasn't changed the television series, the show is not predominantly about gun violence, and in fact it shows you the problems that occur in that world." Bernthal felt delaying the release of the series "was the right decision" out of respect for the victims. Between the delaying of the series due to the Vegas shooting until the November 17 release, the U.S. experienced another mass shooting with the Sutherland Springs church shooting. Bernthal hoped that after these two shootings and the release of the series, it would help further the discussion on gun violence, with "all sides of this debate" represented in The Punisher.
Marketing
Bernthal and Woll appeared at New York Comic Con in October 2016 to officially announce the start of production on the series and the latter's involvement. At San Diego Comic-Con International 2017, Bernthal presented exclusive footage. A teaser was revealed on Netflix in August 2017, appearing after the credits of the final episode of The Defenders. Also in the month, the series' Twitter account revealed the episode titles as Morse code messages. In September 2017, the series' Instagram account released viral videos made to look like security footage, while episodic photos and a poster for the series with a redacted release date were also released. On September 20, the official trailer for the series was released. Andrew Liptak of The Verge noted the trailer "sets up The Punisher with its own distinct tone that's different from the other Marvel Netflix shows. It wades into government conspiracies and hacking, which is reminiscent of shows like CBS's Person of Interest or USA's Mr. Robot, but with more gunfire." Nerdist's Kendall Ashley called the trailer "intense, super bloody, and has [me] INCREDIBLY pumped for the show's premiere." She added, "The hype is huge for this show. If this trailer is any indication, The Punisher is definitely going to live up to fan expectations, and is going to be an intense and awesome addition to the Marvel Netflix universe." Ashley felt the inclusion of "One" by Metallica in the trailer "helps paint Frank as a badass unlike any we've seen on the Marvel Netflix shows so far." Cooper Hood, writing for Screen Rant felt that, even though the series was still without a release date, the trailer would "undoubtedly only increase the fever for The Punisher." He continued that "unlike some of the more cryptic and quiet [marketing] videos that have come before," the trailer "especially fits the mold of Punisher. While it looked like at the beginning of the trailer that this one would again be a quieter piece of marketing, it turned out to be anything but. The trailer is stylish and well-cut to the beat of the song, with the choice of "One" only further amplifying the intensity."
By the end of September, Netflix had updated their viral website for the New York Bulletin to include a profile page for Karen Page. After revealing her login credentials in a post on Daredevil's Facebook page, readers who visited Page's profile found images within folders titled "Research", "Trial" and "Evidence". The images referenced events and Page's research into Castle from the second season of Daredevil. Bernthal and other members of the cast were scheduled to appear at New York Comic Con 2017 to promote the series, but the panel was cancelled after the 2017 Las Vegas Strip shooting. Two weeks later, a second trailer was released, that revealed the series' release date of November 17, 2017. Tom Philip writing for GQ was not very enthused with the trailer, saying it was, "hard to get super jazzed about another gritty, ultra-violent, gun-loving, non-superhero show right now." He was critical of the "utilitarian-sounding writing" in the trailer, but felt the chemistry between Bernthal and Woll would be a reason to watch The Punisher. Philip also felt the addition of Moss-Bachrach was "curious, but at least it's a swing for the fences from a TV studio that tends to play it astoundingly safe." Scott Mendelson of Forbes noted that the gun violence sequences featured were mainly "flashbacks with military men doing military things in full fatigues or scenes of bad guys shooting at not-so-bad guys with heavy gunfire", which was a strong contrast to the first trailer. Mendelson felt this shift in the marketing strategy could have been in response to the Las Vegas shootings. TechCrunch's Darrell Etherington agreed with Mendelson, noting how the trailer "plays up Castle's motivations and the more human side of the story", while still looking "gritty and dark, [and] Bernthal's portrayal looking as strong as ever." Etherington did also criticize the soundtrack of the trailer. The Punisher had its red carpet premiere on November 6, 2017, in New York City at the 34th Street AMC Loews theatre.
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 61% approval rating with an average rating of 6.82/10 based on 54 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "A rocky start can't keep The Punisher from pushing the boundaries of Marvel's TV universe with a fresh take on the comics-derived action thriller." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 54 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Summarizing the critical response to the entirety of the first season, GameSpot said reviews were "mixed." It received mixed to negative reviews from the LA Times and Salon.
The Washington Post said that Netflix had finally gotten the franchise "right" in a live-action in a way the prior three movies had failed to please fans. It gave the credit to the "soul" of the show and Bernthal as "one of Marvel's great casting gets" and made the show "a definitive adaptation that doubles as Netflix's best Marvel show to date." The Hollywood Reporter thought the first 13 episode season felt "at least twice the length it should be." The New York Times said "the action picks up as the season progresses, but The Punisher never quite gets in touch with the visceral roots of its material."
Esquire called the first season "a compelling and complex horror story about the military." The New York Times said that although the action picks up later in the first season, the slow pace made it less pulpy and more of a procedural thriller with a moody and psychological approach, particularly for its focus on PTSD. Variety also wrote positively of both the show and Bernthal's "seamless" performance, saying that "It's difficult to imagine better casting than Bernthal, who communicates so fluently with impassive silences, and is convincing both when he is being terribly violent and especially gentle." However, the review said the show took some time to show that it "transcends what it appears to be" at first, through Steve Lightfoot's "sharp, conscious storytelling." It also praised what it called anti-violence themes throughout the series. Vanity Fair wrote a less positive review, saying the show was as "psychologically confused as its antihero," as the writers had Castle target people for questionable reasons but portrayed him as justified. Vanity Fair wrote that "What the series neglects to examine, of course, is the fact that the Punisher is just as wicked as the villains he targets." Vulture described the show's attempts to "humanize and deepen" Castle beyond the violent "monster" he was in the original comics as "unpersuasive," and described a conflict between the showing wanting to be both The Best Years of Our Lives and Death Wish IV: The Crackdown at the same time.
References
External links
- Marvel's The Punisher on Netflix
- Marvel's The Punisher on IMDb
- Marvel's The Punisher at TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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