This May. To find peace. He will lose it. That’s the tagline seen in the full-length trailer for The Punisher: One Last Kill, an upcoming television special from Marvel Television on Disney+. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, best known for his work in King Richard and Bob Marley: One Love, the story, credited to Green and Jon Bernthal himself, boasts the kind of reverting-to-the-old-ways structure that’s been synonymous with Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher.
Sporting a full-bearded look with a weathered appearance, the footage showcases his lonely side with the ghosts of his past and visions of his late daughter Lisa Barbara, before it escalates into a series of brutal fights and shootouts. As the tagline suggests, the only inner peace he can get is by going back to his former self: a violent, rage-fueled vigilante. That means getting his hands dirty all over again, to the point that the trailer concludes with the iconic shot of Frank donning the large, spray-painted white skull on the chest of his black vest.
The trailer doesn’t reveal much, but just enough to tease you about what to expect in The Punisher: One Last Kill. And yet, I can’t fathom why this television special clocks in at just 60 minutes. Yes, you read it right. 60 freaking minutes, as in one hour. A story like this should have been expanded to a feature-length movie. Maybe 90-120 minutes, and have it released theatrically, preferably worldwide, to reach a wider audience.
Besides, Bernthal, who’s been playing the role since the Netflix era of Daredevil and The Punisher television series in 2016 before crossing over to Disney+’s Marvel Television in Daredevil: Born Again, deserves an MCU movie. It has been long overdue since he has done such a great job embodying the role of a PTSD-inflicted vigilante who lost his family, where anger and vengeance have consumed him from the inside out. He nailed that look, and you can feel his frustration without succumbing to over-the-top histrionics when he’s out for a kill.
Bernthal is undoubtedly the best Frank Castle/Punisher role ever portrayed, even though it’s understandable that there are fans who may prefer Dolph Lundgren (the 1989 version), Thomas Jane (the 2004 version), and Ray Stevenson in 2008’s Punisher: War Zone. The latter was the last time we got a theatrical release, and believe it or not, it has been 17 years ever since.
Reinaldo Marcus Green may have been the least likely name to be seen handling an action-oriented project like The Punisher: One Last Kill, especially given his filmography leaning more on the drama side. Then again, he has prior experience directing crime genre on television, including 2019’s Top Boy and 2022’s six-part miniseries We Own This City. It was the latter that Green used to work with Bernthal, who plays Sergeant Wayne Jenkins of the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF). Made for HBO, the miniseries garnered positive responses, making Green and Bernthal’s reunion in The Punisher: One Last Kill worth looking forward to.
Interestingly, the upcoming television special also includes Robert Elswit as the cinematographer. And in case you are not familiar with his name, Elswit’s illustrious work spans from lensing Curtis Hanson’s earlier directorial features (Bad Influence, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, and The River Wild) to Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, notably Magnolia and There Will Be Blood. He also lensed Green’s previous two films. Elswit’s knack for old-school shooting style, favoring more on 35mm for its distinctly filmic color, grain, and texture, makes him the right fit for lensing something visceral like The Punisher: One Last Kill.
But given the more standardized digital-camera approach synonymous with Marvel Studios production, regardless of movies or television series, Elswit still has that Midas touch of achieving the lived-in look seen in the likes of Ripley miniseries and King Richard. And judging by the atmospheric look in the trailer itself, this television special would be a visual treat.
Winderbaum promises that the special will deliver everything fans want to see in a Punisher story. “It’s like a shotgun blast of a story, but also has all the pathos and emotion that you want out of a Frank Castle story. It’s so exciting,” he said.
The Punisher: One Last Kill premieres on May 12. A new teaser, titled That’s All You Got?, reveals what we can expect when it drops on Disney+.
