Ever since Marvel and Netflix announced they would be green-lighting a solo ‘Punisher’ series way back in March, fans have been desperately awaiting any further detail on the project. It was all just too much to take in. Not only was there the surprise that Netflix had suddenly deviated from their seemingly rigid ‘Defenders’ plans, but Jon Bernthal had just turned up and thrown down a career-defining performance for a character which has been so badly maligned in its previous incarnations. Emotions were high. And then… Well… Not a lot happened really.
Other than an initial announcement that ‘Frank Castle will return’, alongside a freshly designed accompanying Punisher logo, there was nothing more released about the project at all. But six months down the line, this week has seen the rumor that the Punisher series may have been slated for a 2017 release, and it’s now being suggested in the last day or so that casting has commenced for at least one of the Punisher’s most well-known supporting characters.
It’s being reported in the MCU Exchange that Netflix are currently searching for an actor to play someone in the new series who goes by the name of ‘Dennis Landstrom’. So who do we think that name might be a placeholder for?
Well, cast your minds back to that not-so subtle Easter Egg dropped right at the end of Season 2 of ‘Daredevil’ when Frank Castle returned to his family home to retrieve a CD mysteriously marked ‘MICRO’, before setting out on his crusade to rid New York of evildoers. Anybody familiar with the Punisher comics will of course know the disc is a reference to David (Linus) ‘Microchip’ Leiberman, who has traditionally been the Punisher’s main source of intel and weaponry. Forearmed with the knowledge that the showrunners have already teased Micro’s arrival in the MCU, does the fact that they’re now actively casting for a male character with the same initials seem much of a coincidence to anybody?
Micro could well end up playing either and ally or an antagonist for Frank, depending on which way the makers want to pitch the character. In the comics, Micro was a legendary computer hacker, whose nephew was murdered by the Kingpin, causing him to seek out and assist the Punisher as retaliation against the crime boss. However, as proven by Wayne Knight’s brutal demise at the end of Punisher: War Zone when he played the role, it’s a character that’s never enjoyed a particularly happy existence.
The decision by Lieberman to help Castle has bought with it terrible consequences in all of the versions of the character that have been created to date. In the MAX series, Micro eventually becomes disillusioned with Castle’s endless quest, electing instead to try and help the CIA to capture him. This ends up in a double cross between the CIA, who want Frank to assist them with their war on the Taliban, and the local Mafia, who are assisting the CIA with various shady drugs operations. The final result for Micro in all this is a brutal decapitation via shotgun, administered by his former colleague.
Things didn’t work out much better for the Micro of Earth 616 either. Bought back from the grave by super criminal The Hood, Lieberman again assisted in the capture of The Punisher with the promise of the reincarnation of his deceased nephew.. Unsurprisingly, when offered the same incentive, Castle responded by losing his shit and butchering a whole room of reanimated supervillians, Micro included.
Whether the disc will prove to be a means for locating Micro, or will have been provided by Micro as a way of allying with the vigilante remains to be seen. Here’s hoping the coming weeks see some more formal announcements from the Studio, and the return of Bernthal’s version of The Punisher next year.
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Source: MCUExchange