Marvel Studios is reportedly planning to develop a new film about The Punisher that will follow in the vein of Warner Bros' Joker. The studio apparently wants to have an award-winning movie that will be bigger than its superhero ensemble Avenger.
Sources told We Got This Covered that Marvel hopes to replicate the success of Joker, which won Joaquin Phoenix the Best Actor plum at numerous awards. The film was also nominated many times for Best Director and Best Picture during the 2019-2020 awards season.
Marvel is said to be hunting a director that will tackle Frank Castle's origin story on the big screen. It will be different from the defunct Netflix series, which starred Jon Bernthal.
The news comes as reports surfaced that writer Adam G. Simon, who wrote the 2011 The Raid, apparently pitched a different kind of The Punisher movie. His idea involved Frank Castle versus Nick Fury, with the music of Eminem as the soundtrack.
Simon revealed in an interview with Comic Book that his story was supposed to bring Frank Castle in to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It would have happened after the end of the Netflix show. He described his film idea as a "3:10 to Yuma meets Leon by way of The Winter Soldier."
The writer also envisioned Bernthal in The Punisher role, as well as Joel Edgerton as Bullseye, Kristin Scott Thomas or Edie Falco as Ma Gnucci, Jeffry Wright or Russell Crowe as Micro. Simon confessed that he has a "sick obsession" with The Punisher that he has an ever-evolving pitch document on file.
He is also a big fan of Bernthal and said that he is the only actor who can play Frank Castle as he should be. However, Simon's story pitch didn't pan out and currently, it's unclear if Bernthal will ever get to play the Punisher or Castle again after the Netflix cancellation.
In 2019, Bernthal said that he isn't closing his doors on reprising the role should Disney Plus, Marvel's new streaming service from its parent company, decide to bring the series or the character back. The actor said that if the project works out for him, he'll jump at the chance to play the role again.
The Punisher first appeared in Marvel Comics in 1974. In feature films, the character was portrayed by Dolph Lundgren in a 1989 flick, Thomas Jane in 2004 film and Ray Stevenson in a 2008 production.
