From the looks of things, Marvel Studios' Punisher Special Presentation is making a major change to its central Marvel villain. Next year, Jon Bernthal's skull-cracking supe is set to step back into the spotlight with a Disney+ spin-off of his own, picking up the character's story after his long-awaited return in 2025's Daredevil: Born Again.
Part of this new R-rated adventure will be the never-before-seen in live-action big bad, Ma Gnucci, for Bernthal's titular anti-hero to go up against. Ma Gnucci is a classic character from the Punisher comics, being the matriarch of the criminal Gnucci family. She is probably best known for her lack of arms and legs, losing them after a particularly prickly battle with the Punisher at the Central Park Zoo that left her mauled by a pack of polar bears.
However, it looks as though the new Punisher Disney+ special will make a significant change to Ma Gnucci, doing away with her defining feature from Marvel Comics. New images from the Punisher set seemingly revealed that the often limbless comic book villain will retain her arms and legs in the new series.
The photos (shared online by X user Daredevil Shots) show what seems to be Ma Gnucci sitting in a wheelchair and walking alongside Jon Bernthal's Punisher. However, eagle-eyed fans can see she has both her arms and legs as well as her hair in the shots, suggesting the character's look has been changed for the streaming special.
The Punisher Special Presentation comes to Disney+ sometime in 2026. The one-off streaming special will star Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher, a no-hold-barred vigilante who is not afraid to get blood on his hands if it means bringing the criminals of New York City to justice. Specific plot details of the new series have not yet been made public, but fans can expect the special to pick up Punisher's story where it left off at the end of Daredevil: Born Again Season 1.
Why Did The Punisher Special Change Ma Gnucci?
For longtime Punisher fans, seeing these new photos from the Punisher Special Presentation set will be confusing. If Marvel Studios wanted to adapt a character like Ma Gnucci, why would she look do sifnigicantly different than how she does in the comics?
The look most people know the criminal queenpin for includes a wheelchair, no hair on her head, and a significant lack of limbs. The series seemingly has the wheel chair down, but the rest remains absent. However, there maybe good reason for these massive changes.
For one, there has been no firm confirmation that this character is the Marvel villain. Ma Gnucci has only been rumored to appear in the new streaming project, and fans have inferred, seeing this wheelchair-bound woman, that this is, in fact, Ma.
There is also always the chance that the comic book crime boss may not have had her iconic accident by the time the streaming special actually happens. While she is in a wheelchair already, perhaps, the Punisher special will lead to her and Frank Castle's showdown in the Central Park Zoo which left her limbless in the comics.
Some have even speculated that she has lost her arms and legs by the time this moment in the show happens, they will just be CG-ed off in post-production rather than done practically.
So, not all hope if lost for fans wishing for a comics-accurate Ma Gnucci in The Punisher, they will just have to wait to see if Marvel Studios adapts ever aspect of the character or not.
