It’s fair to say that today Netflix has managed to totally dominate the opening day of this year’s NYCC. Rolling into town straight off of the positive buzz generated by ‘Luke Cage’, the company have been dropping teasers for March 17th’s ‘Iron Fist’ series, and deploying the rest of the ‘Defenders’ cast on webchats. But the opening day of Comic Con belongs to one man, and one man only. Frank Castle.
It had already been announced that Jonny Bernthal would be limited in how much he could actually commit to the convention, as he was rumored to have already commenced filming on scenes for the announced ‘Punisher’ solo series, and on Tuesday, the first couple of set shots leaked online. We don’t know if this was all part of Netflix’s plan, or if they’ve just decided to capitalize on the developing story, but today has seen a flurry of Punisher-related announcements.
First up was the confirmation that Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page) would be appearing in the series in some capacity. This was subsequently followed by an official casting announcement from Marvel that revealed who would be playing three of the show’s title characters. First things first, although we already new Ben Barnes would be playing a bad guy, the suggestion was it would be a new incarnation of Howard Saint. Well, that turned out to be nonsense, as it’s been announced that he will be playing a new version of Billy Russo, AKA notorious Punisher nemesis ‘Jigsaw’. Interestingly, the casting notes show that this Billy Russo served with Frank in Afghanistan, and now runs a private security company. Could this company also have links to the experiments that created Luke Cage, as well as the program that turns Will Simpson into Nuke? And will Barnes make it to the end of Season 1 with his face intact? Unlikely.
Next up, the show has finally revealed it’s Microchip, with Ebon Moss-Bachrach unveiled as Frank’s closest ally. The actor, best known for his work on ‘The Last Ship’ is a great fit for the role, and is described as a former NSA analyst. Last up, British actress Amber Rose (From Paris With Love) has been cast as a character named Dinah Midani, a Homeland Security agent detailed to bring Frank Castle to heel. This sounds uncannily like a character named Kathryn O’Brien from the Punisher MAX imprint, who ends up allying with and falling for the vigilante.
Now, as if all that wasn’t enough for Punisher fans, a series of new logos for the upcoming Netflix seasons have also appeared online. They all certainly look official, but haven’t been confirmed yet by either Netflix, or Marvel. There is also the small fact that the skull that is being used has changed from the one teased last year when the series was announced, so stay posted for official confirmation on that.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLPM27ehcjK/?taken-by=heroes.villains.daily
Personally, I don’t really think it makes much sense considering how much different the skull looks in the logos released earlier this year by Marvel:
So, given that there hasn’t been an official announcement, we’ll ask you to take this with a HUGE grain of salt until something official comes.
As NYCC progresses, and with fans swarming all over the New York set where The Punisher series is filming, there are surely going to be more big reveals before the weekend is out. So go and have a lie down. While you can…