The second season of The Punisher is almost here, and… wow, it’s dark.
Netflix released a teaser for the highly anticipated new season on Thursday with an announcement that the latest batch of episodes will drop on the streaming service January 18. Given that Netflix has been on a superhero-canceling binge lately—axing both Luke Cage and Iron Fist—this may be the last chance for the series, produced by Marvel and ABC Studios, to show off what it can do with the Marvel antihero.
The first season saw Frank Castle, AKA the Punisher—who also appeared in earlier Daredevil episodes—brutally hunting down gangsters while uncovering a government conspiracy involving his time in the military, along the way violently avenging the deaths of his family.
Here’s what to know about Castle’s imminent return to Netflix.
When is The Punisher Season 2 out?
Netflix picked up The Punisher for another go-around shortly after dropping season one at the end of 2017. Production on Season 2 wrapped in August, and Netflix recently made clear it will be out January 18.
Who’s in The Punisher Season 2 cast?
There is, of course, the Punisher himself, embodied in an intense performance by the phenomenal character actor and Men’s Health cover guy Jon Bernthal. (He’s the intimidating-looking guy from The Walking Dead, The Wolf of Wall Street, Fury, and Sicario.)
Getty ImagesDaniel Zuchnik
You can expect a harrowing return for big baddie Billy Russo, played by Ben Barnes of Westworld. But he won’t be looking so hot after Castle smashed his face through glass at the end of season one, severely disfiguring his mug and putting him in a coma. In the comics, he devolves into an even more monstrous villain known as Jigsaw.
But Netflix’s The Punisher has a slightly different arc in mind. Russo won’t be called Jigsaw in the show, Barnes told io9, though his face will be stitched up and looking grisly in a blow to his narcissism. Instead, we’ll see a more internal conflict in Russo that will keep the character grounded.
“It’s not just about the physical,” Barnes said. “He’s had his head very much traumatized in the same way that many many veterans have been and he’s trying to deal with that. He’s got brain damage and severe issues with his memory. He’s trying to piece together what happened and who he is, and at one point the metaphor is used that his brain is the jigsaw they’re trying to put back together.”
Netflix
Or as Russo says in the new teaser, “It’s like a bomb went off inside my mind, scattering all the pieces.”
Russo also apparently dons a creepy mask this time around as evidenced by the teaser, in case the facial scars weren’t dramatic enough.
Amber Rose Revah and Curtis Hoyle will also be back as Dinah Madani and Jason R. Moore, respectively. And the lineup is getting some new members: Josh Stewart as John Pilgrim, a man with ruthless secrets; Floriana Lima as Krista Dumont, a psychotherapist for military veterans; and Giorgia Whigham as Amy Bendix, a grifter with a past. More recently, the production touted additional cast members Corbin Bernsen as nefarious wealthy figure Anderson Schultz and Annette O’Toole as his shifty wife Eliza.
What’s going to happen in the next season of The Punisher?
“Someone told me once life is just trying not to be lonely,” Castle says at the beginning of the Punisher Season 2 teaser. A downer, to be sure, but the show will clearly continue to examine the veteran’s post-traumatic stress disorder after he checked into a veterans’ support group for treatment at the end of Season 1.
Castle will also, of course, continue stamping out criminals in his own vigilante way. We can expect him to wrestle again with Russo, who was once part of his military unit, but Russo will likely take a backseat this time around.
According to a synopsis for the season, the latest installment picks up with Castle “living a quiet life on the road until he suddenly becomes embroiled in the attempted murder of a young girl.
“As he is drawn into the mystery surrounding her and those in pursuit of the information she holds,” the synopsis continues, “Castle attracts a new target on his back as new and old enemies force him to confront whether he should accept his destiny and embrace a life as the Punisher.”
Stewart’s John Pilgrim will be a main antagonist. A Collider report describes Pilgrim as an “alt-right” Christian fundamentalist who had a “rage, a violent side of him,” Stewart said. “It’s buried deep. I think where this is all headed, that sort of side of him is going to resurface a bit.”
Touching on the topical politics of the alt-right will surely stir some controversy for The Punisher. If this is indeed its last season, it won’t go out quietly.
That’s confirmed by Castle’s final words in the teaser: “You need to let me be what I’m meant to be,” he says. “I’m not the one who dies. I’m the one who does the killing.” So yeah, he’ll need to wait for a bit of peace.
Per the teaser, Castle will also throw on his iconic skull-decorated vest. “This year, when he puts it on, we figured out a very intelligent, very tactical reason, a very psychologically tactical reason to wear it. It makes a lot of sense,” Bernthal said.
For his part, showrunner Steve Lightfoot has had a plan in mind for these episodes all along. “I always knew what the journey of season one was, which meant I knew what season two would be,” he told Collider.
Of fan expectations, he added, “That’s always tricky because you get such a variation. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people are in the middle. My personal opinion with that stuff is you just have to be true to the character and the story you choose to tell.”
What are fans saying about Season 2?
Some Reddit users suspect that Castle will more fully transform into the Punisher he’s known as in the comics—a little less self-righteous, and a lot less apologetic about his killing ways.
“Frank in Season 1 wasn’t exactly the punisher, he was an ex-marine trying to end a conspiracy surrounding his family. It’s going to be interesting to see Frank lose his sense of humanity,” one Reddit user wrote.
While there doesn’t appear to be any direct correspondent in the comics to the new Pilgrim villain, fans on Reddit have noted that Marvel has explored Christian villains before, particularly in the context of the X-Men.
Whatever Pilgrim and Russo have in store, it all might be enough to push Bernthal into becoming the Punisher he’s meant to be.