The Punisher's 2026 Disney+ Special Presentation must avoid one mistake from the Netflix series to win over fans. Having kick-started his MCU comeback last year in Daredevil: Born Again, Jon Bernthal's Punisher will appear at least twice this year. Frank Castle will star in his own one-hour Disney+ Special Presentation that ties into the PG-13 big-screen MCU debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The jury is still out on whether he will feature in Born Again Season 2 after Bernthal made his first Punisher appearance in the second season of Netflix's Daredevil before spinning off into his own two-season Netflix show.
Netflix's take on The Punisher fell into a common superhero media trope: Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle relinquishes his vigilante agenda, only to pick it back up. That wouldn't be quite so detrimental to the Netflix series if it weren't for the fact that The Punisher repeated that same concept twice in just two seasons.
As most will be aware, Frank Castle became the Punisher to avenge his family's murders. The marine veteran originally believed his wife and children were unfortunate victims in a random Central Park gang shootout, leading him to track down and kill the gangsters responsible, after which he hung up the mantle.
However, The Punisher spin-off brings the twist revelations that his family was actually killed by corrupt CIA agent William Rawlins and Col. Ray Schoonover to cover up their illegal heroin trafficking operation. As such, Castle picked up the mantle by the end of Season 1 to truly take revenge.
By that point, Bernthal's character had truly taken revenge for his family (for real this time), leading him to hang up the mantle for the second time. But over the course of Season 2, Castle comes to realize that becoming the Punisher was about more than revenge, at which point he truly assumes the anti-hero persona.
The Punisher is generally regarded as a solid, albeit far from perfect, adaptation of Castle and his brutal, criminal-killing mythos. Many criticized the Netflix series for its slow pacing, military focus, cliché conspiracy storyline, and excessive focus on Castle himself rather than the Punisher.
By condensing The Punisher into a one-hour Disney+ Special Presentation, rather than a two-season, 26-hour streaming series, Marvel Television can tell a more focused story about the street-level anti-hero, perhaps better balancing emotion and action.
Marvel Studios notably went two-for-two with its first Disney+ Special Presentations in 2022 with Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Fans have since been hankering for more from the unique, one-off format that is now returning with the Punisher in a rather historic way.
Why the Punisher's 2026 Reboot Is So Exciting
Marvel Television boss Brad Winderbaum once hyped up the Punisher's Disney+ special as a "shotgun blast of a story" that carries "all the pathos and emotion that you want out of a Frank Castle story" (via Entertainment Weekly).
This description paints a picture of a brutal TV-MA hour that will more carefully balance Frank Castle and The Punisher than the Netflix show did. Jon Bernthal has often thrown around the term "high-octane" to describe his special, indicating it will be more action-packed than the Punisher fans have seen before.
The Punisher's reboot project will pit Frank Castle against Ma Gnucci, a female crime boss who many hoped would feature in the Netflix series. After set videos offered a glimpse at the TV-MA action set to hit Disney+, fans should be hopeful that the MCU is finally bringing the Punisher that fans wanted to screens.
The 2026 Special Presentation is expected to arrive over the summer and lead into the Punisher's big-screen MCU debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The Netflix star already settled one fear about the Punisher's PG-13 debut, confirming that yes, Castle will feel like the same character across both age ratings.
If the Disney+ Special Presentation is successful, both critically and in viewership, it wouldn't be shocking to see the Punisher breakout into another project. One has to wonder if his major role in Spider-Man 4 could even be a stepping stone into a solo blockbuster for Bernthal with an R-rated action epic in the vein of John Wick.
