Some fans may be confused about why Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle (aka the Punisher) is receiving a Disney+ Special Presentation instead of a traditional Disney+ series or a feature film, but there's a good reason. Bernthal previously portrayed the Punisher in Netflix’s Marvel universe, but officially made the crossover into Marvel Studios’ MCU in Daredevil: Born Again Season 1. The character will also be returning in 2026’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day before headlining a project of his own.
After bringing Bernthal's Punisher into the MCU, Marvel Studios made the difficult decision to give the character a Disney+ special (which has been officially titled The Punisher: One Last Kill) instead of a TV series or a movie. This puzzled many fans, mainly because Netflix released a multi-season Punisher TV show alongside other projects like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, so many were under the impression that Marvel Studios would do the same, especially since Daredevil received his own series, just like in the Netflix continuity.
Marvel has an official reason for this decision. While speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the Marvel Studios Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation, Brad Winderbaum, revealed that the story will sort of run parallel to the Punisher's fighting style, and that One Last Kill, which will be released on May 12, is meant to mimic "a shotgun blast."
It is worth noting that the Disney+ Special Presentations are meant to be shorter projects. Most often, the runtime is longer than a single episode of most television shows, but shorter than a movie. So far, Marvel has released two special presentations, Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
While it may be a lot shorter, that is intentional, and Winderbaum assured fans that it will still have "all the pathos and emotion" that "a Frank Castle story" should:
"It's like a shotgun blast of a story, but also has all the pathos and emotion that you want out of a Frank Castle story. It's so exciting."
The Punisher is a violent character who puts the pedal to the floor and goes full speed, no matter what it is he is doing. The Punisher Disney+ project will likely feel the same way. It will undoubtedly be fast-paced, violent, and tell a cohesive story.
Most likely, Marvel Studios realized that there was not enough story material to create a TV series for the character, and didn't want a plot like that to be bogged down and riddled with filler episodes or filler scenes.
However, there are likely other reasons behind the Special Presentation decision that Marvel hasn't publicly stated.
For example, movies and TV shows are more expensive to make now than they ever have been before. Streaming projects like those on Disney+ cost even more money than traditional network shows, so if Marvel Studios were going to make an episodic Punisher project, it would likely need to shell out a tremendous amount of money, and the company probably doesn't want to do that since it is impossible to know how well a Punisher project would perform on the platform.
It is also important to remember that the MCU is an interconnected franchise, so Frank Castle's story and character arc can be told in movies and TV shows where he is not the title character. For instance, he has already appeared in Daredevil: Born Again Season 1, and will play a major role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, so fans will be seeing him in two separate projects that give him character development, and he won't even be the title character.
It is also possible that Marvel Studios doesn't see Frank Castle as high up on the totem pole as other superheroes. His story may not be independent enough to warrant an episodic or multi-season project.
Whatever the case may be, Marvel Studios likely spent a lot of time debating whether its first Punisher project should be a traditional Disney+ series or a Special Presentation. At the end of the day, it thought it would be more beneficial to go with a Special Presentation.
Will the Punisher Ever Receive a Full Disney+ Show?
The Punisher: One Last Kill Special Presentation is the first Frank Castle-centric project to be released by Marvel Studios. One of the main questions many fans have is if it will be the last. Ultimately, no one knows, and Marvel Studios likely doesn't even have a concrete answer to that question.
Once the Special Presentation is released, a lot of professionals will be looking at the analytics and reporting back to Marvel Studios and Disney. If it blows past expectations, it is entirely possible fans could see a Punisher show sometime in the future.
However, that probably won't happen, especially since Marvel isn't in as good a place as it was seven or eight years ago when everyone was prioritizing watching MCU content over anything else.
As mentioned, Marvel most likely sees Frank Castle as more of a support character whose story can be told in other projects. The great thing about Frank is that he can really fit into any movie or TV show naturally. He obviously has a knack for popping up in street-level stories like Spider-Man and Daredevil, but he would also be a great addition to any Avengers movie.
Frank is an extremely versatile character, and Marvel knows that. Fans shouldn't be surprised if this is the only MCU project where he is the titular character, but they should also expect him to show up in tons of movies and TV shows down the line.
