Season One of Marvel’s The Punisher ended on a surprisingly well-tied knot minus a few potential cliffhangers with the fate of Billy Russo and other character connections. Now that a second season has been announced (which will still be available on Netflix’s streaming service instead of Disney’s), some news has hit that is strongly hinting the influence of a classic and very heavy story arc. Then again, when isn’t it going to get heavy for someone like Frank Castle?
Some character breakdowns have been surfaced by The Hashtag Show, those being two regular females. One is described as a Annie Beir, a 16 year old who is “someone who is used to the streets and is both scrappy and aware of her environment”. The other a Kim Davis, a female in her mid-30s, open ethnicity and “working as a therapist”. From the analysis, this leads to hard speculation that the second season may center some of the narrative on the 2005 Punisher MAX story “The Slavers” by famed Punisher writer Garth Ennis.
But what makes these specific breakdowns so important to reference The Slavers? Annie Bier’s background sound familiar to Victoria in the story, a girl Castle ends up saving and leads our anti-hero to discover the Konstantin and Bulat sex slave business running amuck. And Davis? Considering her “therapist” role, it relates to the character of Jen Cooke, a social worker who works with Victoria to learn of the same dirty organization Frank is going after. And we all know how well Frank takes to pedophiles after his interaction with the pawn shop in Daredevil’s second season.
Some talk is also going on of the possible casting of Detective Martin Soap, a member of the Punisher Task Force in another Ennis story, “Welcome Back, Frank”. The character was also in 2008’s Punisher: War Zone. Another breakdown is calling for a male of any ethnicity to play “an honest detective” in his early 30s going by Melvin Skelling.
From the looks of it, we’ll be seeing less of the milita conspiracy timeline that the first season was more focused on and be having Frank return to the streets and take down crime of both the brutal and organized nature.
At this point, its all hearsay but with casting already in the process, character confirmation won’t be too far off. In the meantime, you can watch The Punisher Season One available on Netflix right now.