Marvel Television just announced five new cast members have joined their Netflix series The Punisher.
One of the standouts is redhead actress Jaime Ray Newman (Major Crimes, NCIS, CSI: New York, Stargate: Atlantis, Bosch, Grimm, Catch Me If You Can, Bates Motel) said to be playing Sarah Lieberman, the wife of Frank’s ally and arms dealer Microchip.
Jaime Ray Newman (“Bates Motel”) plays Sarah Lieberman, Micro’s wife (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach) whose marriage has made her life far more complicated.
She has a striking resemblance to one of the more famous women in the Punisher comics and that just happens to be Frank’s protege Rachel Cole-Alves. Newman’s red hair and being close to a friend of Frank’s, suggests something could happen that leads to her becoming Castle’s vigilante sidekick. She’s also played tough characters before making her a good candidate.
We’ve seen Marvel Television take liberties with characters before, so making Sarah an altered version of Rachel wouldn’t be strange at all.
It should be noted that Sarah Lieberman isn’t from the comics, but a new character created for the series.
Rachel’s character bio gives the impression she could fit into the story elements of The Punisher, which we’ve learned takes place during the Afghan War and stateside post-Daredevil.
Rachel Cole, US Marine veteran of two tours in Afghanistan, returned home to marry Dr Daniel Alves. Two hours after their wedding, she, her husband, family and friends were all gunned down. The sole survivor, she took her husbands name and sought revenge, consequently allying herself with The Punisher!
Microchip more than likely will be mixed-up with villain Billy Russo‘s (Ben Barnes) private military contractor company Anvil.
There have been rumblings of female soldiers being apart of those Afghanistan sequences, backed up by a couple of audition tapes we’ve seen. A couple of other characters will be playing former soldiers, so seeing Sarah possibly being one of them too, a private contractor or connected to Anvil wouldn’t be hard to imagine.
Newman has played women in uniform before.
We’ll have to wait and see if her role is larger than the press release suggests.