New Daredevil Season 2 poster, plus Jon Bernthal talks The Punisher

With less than a month to go before the release of Daredevil Season 2, Marvel has released an awesome new poster for the forthcoming season fearing Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle/The Punisher, as well as a great interview with the actor.

But before we get to the interview, let's take a look at the new poster.

Bernthal on if there were any real world things he drew on for the role:

Well, I think that, fortunately and unfortunately, a dark headspace is nothing new to me. I have some experience with it in the characters that I’ve gotten to play and each one is so different and each one, I think, sort of requires its own process and its own method to get involved [in]. I will say that being a father and being a father of young kids, it’s a real game-changer for me. With a character like this, the trauma that he’s suffering from and what this man has gone through, I’m extremely grateful that this opportunity came to me after I was a father. I think it’s essential in playing the part and understanding what it would mean to fail your family in that way and to lose your family on your watch and how serious that is.

I think that another part is really trying to empathize and try to understand through every avenue that’s made available to you what it means to be a veteran of war and to see real war combat. This is a character that’s extremely important to the military and extremely important to members of law enforcement. This character, he means a lot to a lot of people. So there were a lot of days, in Brooklyn, when I first got there, [where I’d] be putting on fifty, sixty pound weights on my back and just walking back and forth over the Brooklyn Bridge, talking to myself. My own little crazy ways of getting into the character. This is a real responsibility and a real honor for me, and I just hope [with] all the hard work, that we got some of it right.

On the similarities between his character and Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock/Daredevil:

Look, I think what makes this show so special is what Charlie’s done with Matt and with Daredevil; what he’s done with that is highly unique and they did not want a guy playing just another super hero. I mean, he’s created a fully realized, fully nuanced character and I think that’s what you need to do with Frank Castle as well. So yes, I think both these men have gone through real trauma in their lives and they’re out for justice in their own very, very unique and different ways.

A big part of Matt Murdock is he needs to be one very bad day away from being Frank Castle. That’s the crux of their conflict: “You don’t know what I’ve been through. You don’t know what I’m all about. Get out of my way.” And this sort of concern for the greater good is something that I think is secondary to this man at this point. What’s interesting is you find these two characters that are so alike and so different and then when they collide, they just learn from each other.

On if he thinks Castle and Murdock are both stubborn men:

When your whole philosophy of why you’re doing what you do is questioned, I think you become rhetorical and bombastic about it. You have to dig in and say that your way is right and I think the more chinks in the armor of what you think is right you have, the more bombastic at times people become. I think what’s fascinating about this season is the writers gave these two characters a real opportunity to affect each other and change each other and influence each other. That was one of the joys of the season for me.

Based on yesterday's comments by Marvel TV Executive Vice President Jeph Loeb, it sounds like they are taking a wait-and-see approach in regards to a Punisher spinoff, and although I'm not sure if everyone is going to love Bernthal's take on the violent vigilante, I'm already looking forward to seeing how the character will be used in future Marvel projects.

Daredevil Season 2 will be available on Netflix on March 18, 2016.