Marvel is Bringing Back Jon Bernthal’s Punisher and Charlie Cox’s Daredevil

Ever since Netflix canceled their slate of Marvel television projects, people have been wondering what would happen to the characters featured in those shows, which were decidedly more adult-oriented than Marvel’s typical output.

We had been told at the time that these series took place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they did make mention of the events of the movies in passing. But the Marvel Television division that produced those shows has been dissolved and absorbed by Marvel Studios and there have generally been questions of if the shows produced by Marvel Television would be pushed out of continuity or if we would see characters like Daredevil and The Punisher show up, played by the same actors, in future Marvel projects.

We seem to have gotten our answer and that answer is that Marvel is moving forward and bringing at least some of those actors back into the fold. For starters, Charlie Cox has been spotted on the set of the new Spider-Man movie. There’s no word on if he’ll just be playing blind lawyer Matt Murdoch or if he’ll be suiting up as The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, but it does seem like Cox and his character are being firmly established in the MCU proper.

Giant Freakin’ Robot is also reporting that Jon Bernthal’s Punisher is coming back to the MCU.

According to our trusted inside source – the same one that told us about our now confirmed report regarding Josh Brolin’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Jon Bernthal is coming back as the Punisher. There is a “new Punisher project in the works with the same actor from Netflix.”

They speculate that it could be some kind of reboot with Bernthal still onboard, but my best guess is that the new project will not invalidate the Netflix shows but it won’t rely on knowledge of them, either. In comic books, they call this maneuver a “jumping on point,” where new readers can pick up a book with no knowledge of previous events and follow the story.

I was never a huge Punisher fan, but it doesn’t make sense for Marvel to sit on such a popular character, especially when they also have a fan-favorite actor in the role. It’s not really a surprise that they’re bringing Bernthal back, but it’s sure to be a relief for fans of the Netflix Punisher series.