1) There’s A Good Chance It Could Be Fourth Time Lucky
To date, there have been three Punisher movies, none of them good. There was 1989’s The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren in the title role, 2004’s Thomas Jane-starring The Punisher, and 2008’s Punisher: War Zone with Ray Stevenson starring as Frank Castle. Respectively, they have scores of 28%, 29% and 27% on Rotten Tomatoes – all within one point of each other, helpfully informing you that they are basically equally shit.
With Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, Marvel and Netflix appear to have finally got the character right. After 27 years of waiting, and after contending with three awful adaptations in that time, fans could at last have the standalone Punisher project that they want. A broadcaster with the pedigree of Netflix, a studio with the bank balance and creative draw of Marvel, a lead actor with the skill of Bernthal – the Punisher series doesn’t just have the potential to be great, it could banish memories of the subpar versions of the character that we’ve seen before for good.