Although he’s stepped down as showrunner on Marvel’s Daredevil, Steven DeKnight was in attendance at the Television Critics Association press tour yesterday, during which he spoke to Slash Film about the upcoming introduction of The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) in the show’s second season, and whether this presents Marvel with the opportunity to do the character justice following his previous big screen appearances.
“The thing about The Punisher, and I think there are great things about each of those versions, but none of them was completely the Marvel version,” said DeKnight. “And none of those movies were under the Marvel Studios banner until they recently got The Punisher back. So this is really the first time that we’re seeing the Marvel Studios from the Iron Man days, when they can control their own product, actually do this character.”
SEE ALSO: Set photos from Daredevil season 2 featuring Jon Bernthal as The Punisher
Asked if this new take on Frank Castle will be as violent as his last outing in Punisher: War Zone, DeKnight responded that: “Doubtful, that was pretty violent. The first season of Daredevil was violent but I always say it was more implied. It wasn’t nearly as violent as The Walking Dead, a show that I love. On that, if somebody were to crush somebody’s head in a car door, you would’ve seen the head crush on screen but we didn’t want to go quite that far. We wanted to keep it right around PG-16 and not go all the way to the R. I have no idea if they’re planning to push it that far next season but I would be surprised.”
SEE ALSO: Marvel’s Joe Quesada on casting The Punisher and Elektra for Daredevil season 2
DeKnight also went on to express his regret over having to leave Daredevil, given his fondness for the character: “Punisher is one of my favorite characters. I’ve talked to Jeph Loeb ever since I first met him back on Buffy about doing The Punisher. So it was a heartbreak to me to have to leave, but I knew it was in good hands and I loved everything we had started talking about about Frank Castle being in that story.”
Daredevil season 2 will air on Netflix next year.
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