The only thing that would make this idea better would be if Dolph Lundgren and Ray Stevenson could be used as villains or allies of the titular character in some way. That would complete the whole live-action Punisher roster since Norman Reedus did take on a voice role for the character in an animated Iron Man feature. Just the novelty of it would be great since each of those named has played the part of Frank Castle in their own feature, and while only Jon Bernthal has really captured the attention of a good number of people, the others made a solid effort in their own right since Jane’s movie wasn’t too bad, while Lundgren’s was a product of its time and Stevenson’s was an attempt to go dark that kind of backfired. But the point is that they all served as a basis for Bernthal’s Punisher to come into play since he’s kind of perfected the role, and he’s raised the bar even higher than the others did when it comes to representing the Marvel character on the small screen. If he could be brought to the big screen and left alone in terms of the violence and the overall damage he’s allowed to do it would be great, especially since it would mean that Disney would have loosened up their stance on violence just enough to allow a few movies to keep the allure that drew so many people to their leading characters in the first place.
This has been a concern with other Disney properties as well since with the Fox merger, Disney now owns such properties as Aliens, Predator, and various other franchises that are exceedingly violent and gory, and the Mouse House is known for being family-friendly obviously. It also owns Deadpool, which will be seeing the third movie eventually, and if the merc with a mouth is cut down to size when it comes to swearing and violence it’s safe to assume that it will become kind of like the X-Men: Origins movie that saw a lot of fans express their extreme displeasure with the characters and the overall story. The idea that Wolverine wasn’t even allowed to draw blood until much later in his movie career was a pain in the backside for many fans that had followed the clawed mutant for much if not all of his career in the comics. These are the violent characters of Marvel, and they’re just a few among many since not every hero has the same level of mercy as Spider-Man or Captain America, or even Iron Man. Watching Thor take on and take out so many enemies in his own movies in such an easy fashion was kind of difficult as well since many could easily dredge up stories of the Nordic deity that Marvel drew from in order to tell of his many bloody and overly violent exploits.
The hope for The Punisher, if it ever does become a movie, is that it will be just as violent as the show on Netflix has been and that the unfettered nature of the character will be allowed to take over. That’s a big if since it sounds as though Disney might be hemming and hawing about the whole violence issue when it comes to live-action. The funny thing about that is if one really takes a look at the animated movies that the Mouse House has been pushing to the public for so long, they might take note of the fact that almost every single movie has had a few violent moments that could end up scarring kids for life. But to be fair, The Punisher would be way more violent and would do so more often than a regular movie, so it’s not too hard to think of why Disney is trying to wrap their head around this concept. The thing about this though is that even with their name on it, Disney should be able to take a step back and simply let it happen in order to appease the fans that want to see an antihero in the MCU that’s not afraid to get his hands dirty. The Punisher has stood apart from a lot of heroes throughout his history in Marvel since he’s not the type to send a criminal to jail if he can eliminate the problem then and there.
This has put him at odds with a lot of other heroes, and he’s tangled with some of the most powerful and some that were fairly easy for him to deal with. He’s even tangled with Wolverine and lived to tell the tale. In fact, his first appearance in Marvel comics had him hunting Spider-Man, so one can assume that the character isn’t really intimidated by much. But with Thomas Jane directing and Jon Bernthal acting it does feel as though it would be a complete and impressive movie.
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