The live-action rights to both Jessica Jones andThe Punisherrecently reverted back to Marvel, causing fans to speculate about whether or not they could make an appearance in the never-ending MCU. Through the magic of fan art, viewers now have an idea of what Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle could look like with a Tony Stark suit inMarvel Studios’Armor Warsseries for Disney Plus.
The Punisher and Jessica Jones first appeared onMarvel television show for Netflix, which includedDaredevil, The Defenders, Luke Cage,andIron Fist.All of these shows have since been canceled and for a while, it seemed like audiences had seen the end of these versions of the characters, but it may not be the end after all now that the rights have reverted back to Marvel.
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The Punisherhas been around in Marvel comics for decades now. For those who don’t know, Frank Castle is a former US-Marine and Vietnam Vet whose family was killed in a botched mob hit in central park. After this tragic event, Castle vowed to wage a one-man war on New York City’s criminal underworld, taking on the namePunisherandleaving a trail of dead bodies wherever he went.The Punisherhas actually been adapted for the screen a few times, notably with a 1989 adaptation starring Dolph Lundgren and a 2004 live-action movie starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta. While the Jane and Travolta film has its fans, neither movie was particularly successful and for a long time it, seemed like the character would be relegated to the pages of Marvel comics, and maybea Punisher video gameor two.
In 2015, Netflix started making its own Marvel television shows, which were intended to be “darker” and “grittier than the MCU films, with a focus on the more on street-level characters. FormerThe Walking DeadstarBernthal was cast as The Punisherin the second season ofDaredevil,receiving a lot of praise for his portrayal of the broken down, traumatized vigilante and eventually landing his own spin-off series focusing on the character. After two seasons Netflix’sThe Punisherwas canceled along with the rest of the streamer’s library of Marvel shows. However, rumors have been circulating for a while now that Bernthal could return to the role at some point and Marvel Studios president Kevin Fiege is open tobringing inThe Defenderscharacters to the MCU.
One of the many projects announced late last year during Disney’s Investor Day was the Disney Plus seriesArmor Wars,which will star Don Cheadle as his Avengers character Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes AKA War Machine. The official synopsis for that series reads, “Tony Stark’s worst fear coming true: what happens when his tech falls into the wrong hands?” The series seems to be based on a well-known Marvel comics storyline, but with Robert Downy Jr.’s Stark being dead in the MCU, it seems his close friend and fellow Armor-clad AvengerRhodey will take his place inArmor Wars. This is where the fan art comes in. The art, posted to the Fan Art/Creations section of the Marvel Studios Reddit board by userBegoXx, depicts Frank Castle wearing what looks like a suit of Iron Man-style armor, with his signature skull logo painted on the front.
Fans of the comics will recognize this look immediately. In a fairly recent comic arc,The Punisheractually got a hold ofWar Machine’s armor. In that storyline, Frank Castle was recruited by Nick Fury Jr. to track down some ex-SHEILD agents who were causing havoc in a small Eastern European country. Castle stole the War Machine armor from a government facility and used it to become an unstoppable one-man army. So, perhaps this is the person whom Rhodey wants to keep Starks technology away from. It would definitely be interesting to see these two characters meet on screen, seeing as they both have military backgrounds but VERY different approaches to vigilantism. It’s hard to imagineCheadle’s Rhodey/War Machinebeing particularly thrilled with The Punisher’s methods of ‘Avenging.’
ThePunisherseasons one and two are now available on Netflix.
