The ‘Psychotic’ Punisher Moves in on ‘Daredevil’s Territory

Nature abhors a vacuum. So do ruthless killers. Marvel’s Daredevil ended its premiere season last year with blind superhero Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil (Charlie Cox), taking down Hell’s Kitchen crime lord Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). But the peace will be brief. When the Netflix series returns, a gang of Irish mobsters has stepped in to claim Fisk’s territory, only to be snuffed out in one manic attack by a shadowy figure with SEAL Team 6 capabilities and military-grade firepower. Meet Frank Castle (The Walking Dead vet Jon Bernthal)—code name the Punisher—a deeply disturbed Iraq war vet who wants to rid the neighborhood of vice and corruption. Hey, isn’t that Daredevil’s job?

“Frank Castle will question Matt’s entire worldview,” says executive producer Marco Ramirez. “While both are vigilantes, Frank is a psychotic, cold-blooded savior happy to kill on a mass scale. But Matt’s moral compass is deeply entrenched in religion. He will not kill because it goes against the Ten Commandments. It’ll lead to a very vicious conflict.”

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Ramirez swears this newest crisis in Hell’s Kitchen was not intended as a comment on the Middle East—take out a dictator and create an even worse scenario—but the parallels are unmistakable, especially, he says, “when you consider how everyone—cops, mob gangs, Daredevil and now Frank Castle—is fighting over the same small area.”

Making matters worse, Matt’s law firm is in a financial hole thanks to all his pro bono work on behalf of the downtrodden. “He’s burning the candle at both ends and can’t keep going like this,” executive producer Douglas Petrie says. “But he’s Catholic, so he loves to suffer. It’s up to the people closest to Matt to remind him that martyrs come to bad, bloody ends—and that he may not be an exception to that.”

Daredevil, Season premiere, Friday, March 18, Netflix