Disney+ is rebooting Netflix's The Punisher this year with The Punisher: One Last Kill, but some mainstay characters will be absent from the Special Presentation. The Punisher: One Last Kill may be bringing back some of the Netflix series cast, including Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle and Jason R. Moore's Curtis Hoyle, but several of the two-season show's main characters are expected to remain absent.
Neither Ben Barnes' military veteran friend-turned-foe Billy Russo nor Amber Rose Revah's badass Homeland Security agent Dinah Madani are expected to appear in One Last Kill. Alongside Castle and Hoyle, Russo and Madani were in almost every The Punisher episode, but have been excluded from the reboot.
Russo was the future Punisher's best friend in their army days until, driven by greed and self-preservation, he betrayed him, leading to the Castle family's demise. Years later, Castle severely scarred Russo, leading him to return in Season 2 as the villain Jigsaw seeking revenge and dominance over the criminal underworld, only to be killed by the Punisher, ending his MCU storyline.
Despite arguably being The Punisher's main villain, Russo won't be back in the Disney+ special due to his Season 2 death. Instead, Castle will face a brand new foe in the mob boss Ma Gnucci, dragging him back into his criminal slaying ways.
Dinah Madani enters The Punisher by investigating Operation Cerbus, the same corrupt military group that Russo was entangled in. Despite initially investigating him, she became a close ally of Castle's due to their shared enemy of Russo, with whom she struck up a romantic relationship, only to face betrayal.
Jigsaw and Madani won't be the only absences in The Punisher reboot, as, sadly, Ebon Mass-Bachrach's David Lieberman, better known as the legendary Rising Tide hacker Micro, won't feature either. Having been a mainstay and "man in the chair" to Castle in Season 1, Micro reunited with his family, never to be seen again.
Mass-Bachrach may not be returning in The Punisher: One Last Kill, but he will appear in three Phase 6 projects, now playing Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars. As Marvel Studios' take on the First Family hails from Earth-828, not Earth-616, this, fortunately, causes no canon conflicts or confusion with The Punisher's Micro.
4 Ways The Punisher: One Last Kill Will Be Different From Netflix's Show
One Last Kill Will Be More Connected
Recently, a behind-the-scenes photo hinted that Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page may appear in The Punisher special. Page's appearance wouldn't be out of character, as she also appeared in the Netflix show, but her role could tie into the events of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 and explain Castle's absence.
One Last Kill's release has also been uniquely timed to land just before he leaps onto the big screen in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and establish where Jon Bernthal's Punisher is at the start of the movie. That in itself already gives One Last Kill a grander purpose in the MCU narrative than the Netflix show ever had.
Generally speaking, as this is the Punisher's first solo outing under Marvel Studios, there will be more opportunity to reference the wider MCU even in smaller ways, akin to when Avengers Tower was glimpsed in Born Again's latest season.
Trading Out Conspiracies For Gangs
The Punisher Season 1 had Frank Castle dig up Operation Cerberus, an illegal military operation funded by heroin trafficking and run by William Rawlins. That operation linked back to both Castle's marine days and his family's murders.
Season 2 changed things up but maintained a conspiracy focus, centering around political corruption and the Schultzes, a powerful family with a U.S. Senator son who hires a hitman, The Pilgrim, to cover up a looming scandal.
By all accounts, One Last Kill seems to be taking things back to basics; after all, one hour isn't enough to introduce and unravel an entire conspiracy. Instead, Frank Castle simply seems to be hunting a mob boss, Ma Gnucci.
Faster Pacing
The Punisher: One Last Kill has been described from the get-go as "high-octane" and a "shotgun blast of a story." That certainly paints the picture of a TV-MA, action-packed thrill ride expected to run around an hour.
Due to the Special Presentation format, One Last Kill is a one-hour one-off, which is very different from the Netflix series that had not only two 13-episode seasons. That gave it around 26 hours to flesh out Frank Castle, his supporting cast, the larger narrative, and various bad guys, including Jigsaw and The Pilgrim.
This time around, fans should expect the character focus to remain tightly on the Punisher himself as he goes on a mission to take down Ma Gnucci. While there won't be time to flesh out much of a supporting cast, hopefully, One Last Kill will spend enough time with Ma Gnucci to make her a compelling foe for the Punisher.
Change In Creative Leadership
Netflix's The Punisher was created and showran by Steve Lightfoot for two seasons, who is now co-leading Amazon Prime Video's Spider-Noir.
For the Disney+ special, Lightfoot has been replaced by Reinaldo Marcus Green, the director of 2021's Best Picture winner, King Richard. Not only is the acclaimed director helming One Last Kill, but he co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Bernthal himself, who has stepped into a larger creative role than on the Netflix show.
Funnily enough, one of The Punisher's executive producers and top writers, who was behind four episodes, Dario Scardapane, had a key hand in his return to the MCU as Daredevil: Born Again's showrunner after the creative overhaul.
