People are still binging season two of Daredevil and it’s hard to ignore that Frank Castle is the real standout of the new series. We’ve been hearing for a while now that Marvel Television is indeed developing a Punisher series for Netflix, even though they’ve been denying it.
Beware there are some Daredevil spoilers ahead.
There’s only a handful of Castle’s story arcs that Daredevil tackled which leaves a heap of others for them to pursue. Things like his origin, Frank Miller’s run of the two crossing paths and Trail of The Punisher were sparingly used allowing a bulk of his other stories to be explored in a solo show.
The main teaser at the end included a potential connection to the Blacksmith via Kandhalar and Frank’s weapon supplier Microchip. Who knows at this point if Micro was the one who was actually arming Blacksmith and his former soldier goons.
Kandahar could end-up giving us reason to explore more of Frank’s military past, along with more potential military villains. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if Frank has direct connections to fellow Vet Wil Simpson aka Nuke from Jessica Jones. Not to mention, it might have been this shadowy organization that tried to pull the plug on Castle and were the ones in that white van at his home.
Another military angle could be the six-issue War Zone story River of Blood, that had Castle pair-up with his Russian counterpart Dima Alekov Kaganitzky aka Dragunov to take out war criminal Viktor Aleksandr Vikady, that steals a nuclear warhead to sell on the open market. Vikady committed his war crimes in Afghanistan, so connecting him to Castle and Kandahar wouldn’t be much of a stretch either.
It’s a story that could be perfect for a solo series and Vikady could easily attempt to sell the nuke to The Ten Rings or another terrorist group in the MCU.
Iron Man 2 established Ten Rings are active in Russia.
General Nikolai Zakharov from The Man of Stone story arc could also come into play, and might take the place of Vikady. Having him aligned with Ten Rings or HYDRA wouldn’t be terribly shocking. Although, since he looks a lot like Wilson Fisk they’d have to alter his look for the MCU.
Nikolai Zakharov was a corrupt Russian Army general who participated in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s and was responsible for numerous massacres; he burned down entire villages, murdered thousands of Afghan civilians and sometimes even killed his own men. The higher ups recognized him as a necessary evil in winning the war in Afghanistan, and so his crimes were covered up; his actions mostly became horror stories that terrified both the Mujahideen and the Russian military. Perhaps his most notable atrocity was when he once he threw a baby off a hill; from that moment forward, he was nicknamed the “Man of Stone” because he displayed no feelings whatsoever during the act. Witnessing this, the Mujahideen opened fire on him and his men. As bullets hit the ground next to him, he just stood there.
More recent comics have seen Frank shooting up L.A. and could give a reason why they’ve been tight-lipped about developing a series, as it would move a Netflix series out of New York City. It’s hard to imagine that Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage would be interfering with The Punisher if they’re dealing with the Hand led by Elektra in Defenders. Even more so if he was out of state.
Another interesting thing about Castle’s journey is that he never bumped into the Italians or the Maggia Crime Syndicate. Originally, in the comics they were responsible for the death of his family not the groups in Daredevil. The show Agent Carter has established that the Maggia are actually setup in L.A. not New York City, which could give Frank a reason to move to the West Coast.
The Maggia was also established as active in present day via All Hail The King one-shot, which had members Luis Allegre and Guido Carboni located in California’s Seagate Prison.
In the same one-shot it’s revealed the real Ten Rings are on American soil.
It wouldn’t be the first group of antagonists from an ABC show that Frank has dealt with in Daredevil he killed a bunch of Dogs of Hell bikers. They were introduced in Agents of SHIELD and could have an California chapter making them a good fit for an L.A. setting as well.
Another supporting character that would be excellent to see get adapted is Frank’s protege Rachel Cole-Alves.
There’s actually plenty of stories and villains to support multiple seasons for Punisher series, and we do hope that Marvel announces development on the series soon.
Do you think post-Daredevil Marvel will announce The Punisher series?