Since the 2015 Netflix series, it's become almost impossible to picture Charlie Cox's Daredevil without Jon Bernthal's Punisher by his side. However, Bernthal recently shed light on why he was initially hesitant to join the Disney+ revival, Daredevil: Born Again.
The actor, known for his role in The Wolf of Wall Street, disclosed that his initial reluctance stemmed from the creative direction the team proposed for his character, Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher. "Ultimately, I didn't see it. I didn't see the version of Frank, and what they wanted from Frank [didn't] really make sense to me," he shared with Entertainment Weekly. Bernthal felt that the proposed direction wouldn't resonate with fans and wouldn't align with the character's essence. "I thought [it] would not appeal to the fans and wouldn't be congruent. It was not something I was really interested in doing. So we had to walk away."
Following significant creative changes after industry strikes, the series welcomed producer Dario Scardapane as the new showrunner. It was at this point that Bernthal began to see a fitting role for Frank Castle in *Daredevil: Born Again*. "They really brought me into the conversation," Bernthal said, praising his collaboration with Scardapane, with whom he had worked on the previous *Punisher* series, and Marvel. "We really got specific about where Frank is psychologically, where Frank's at physically."Warning! Spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again follow.
