I was hot and cold on season one of Netflix's The Punisher, but ultimately felt it pulled things off respectfully and created some threads worth exploring in future seasons. Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle/Punisher is way too chatty, but when it comes time to do what Frank does best (slaying baddies), Bernthal has the right temprament for the trade. Season one left Frank with a pardon for his crimes, giving him a fresh start after the events that claimed the lives of his family and his vengeance-fueled quest to bring them to justice. But, anyone that knows Frank Castle knows that he is most certainly a man that holds a grudge and no amount of fresh starts will fuel the black hole of hate he has for the kind of people that killed his family. With that, The Punisher season 2 will find Frank back in action, complete with some new and returning villains (including Ben Barnes' Billy Russo/Jigsaw) in what will inevitably be the last season of the show on Netflix, given their recent cancellation of Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Daredevil (Jessica Jones still has another season to debut, but we expect her to hit the chopping block as well). Check out the teaser below:
While it sucks that this will likely be the end of The Punisher on Netflix, there's no reason we can't settle in and enjoy the season regardless. Despite the cancellations, these are still some of the best of the Marvel shows out there and we can only hope that Disney gets their shit together enough to make good use of the legacy forged with these shows. I guess we'll find out, one way or another.
The Punisher season 2 is expected to debut "soon" (likely sometime in the first quarter of 2019)