2024 Just Made The MCU"s Punisher Casting Even More Exciting

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2024 just made the Marvel Cinematic Universe Punisher casting all the more exciting. While only a single MCU movie was put on the schedule for 2024, the year has been significant for the franchise in many ways. Said lone movie - Deadpool & Wolverine - was a major success for the MCU timeline that brought the Fox X-Men universe into the multiverse, and X-Men '97 similarly brought back the classic cartoon series to much praise and critical acclaim. The year has also seen many big reveals for the future, including the news that Robert Downey Jr. will be playing the MCU's Doctor Doom.
2024's various awards also saw some nods to the MCU, with Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 being nominated for a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award, a range of Saturn Awards, and winning a Visual Effects Society Award. However, it's the 2024 Emmys that make the Punisher's return in the MCU's upcoming releases look even more exciting, despite the Emmy in question not being awarded as a result of a performance in Marvel's superhero franchise itself.
Jon Bernthal's 2024 Emmy Win Makes His Punisher Return Even More Exciting For The MCU John Bernthal's Emmy Win Underlines How Promising His Punisher Return Is Close 2024 saw Punisher actor Jon Bernthal win his first Emmy, underscoring how exciting his upcoming return in the Daredevil: Born Again cast is for both the show and the MCU on a broader level. While Bernthal didn't win the Emmy for playing the Punisher - instead gaining the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Mikey in The Bear season 2 - the award shows that the actor's talents have only been cemented with time, further enhancing the potential of his MCU return.
Jon Bernthal had previously been nominated for the same Emmy in 2023, once again for his role in The Bear - though this time in season 1. His 2024 win adds another award to his collection, with the actor having already won Best Supporting Actor at the 2021 Detroit Film Critics Society for his role in King Richard, winning the National Board of Review Award for Best Cast with Fury in 2014, and gaining a Garland Award for Outstanding Acting Ensemble and an Ovation Award for Best Acting Ensemble in a Play for his role in Jon Pollono's Small Engine Repair.
Though these other awards already stood as a testament to Bernthal's acting history and talent, the Emmy serves as a more mainstream form of recognition that can hopefully translate into even more interest in his MCU role. Since Daredevil: Born Again is set to be focused on its titular lead character, having a literal testament to Bernthal's ability to make a figure who is not the main character shine should be worth its weight in gold for the MCU show, allowing Frank Castle's story to be revived effectively regardless of what amount of time he's given on-screen.
Jon Bernthal Has Been The MCU's Perfect Punisher Casting For Years Jon Bernthal Has Long Been The Best Choice The MCU Had For Its Punisher Casting Close It seemed for a long time that the MCU would likely replace Netflix's Marvel show actors when it came to its own renditions of the characters - partly because the Defenders shows were only confirmed as MCU canon in recent history, and partly because the Captain America: The Winter Soldier theories that Punisher was the one who helped Nick Fury by driving a yellow truck into some HYDRA agents' cars suggested early on that a new version of the character could be revealed from that point onward.
That said, it's hard to imagine another actor playing Frank Castle as effectively as Jon Bernthal. On the first and most obvious level, Bernthal is the person who has played the Punisher for the longest in live-action history, having first appeared in the role in Daredevil season 2, episode 1 in 2016, and being last seen as Castle in 2019's The Punisher season 2 finale, making a number of appearances in various episodes of Netflix shows between these two points.
However, Bernthal's commitment to the role and understanding the psychology of a figure like the Punisher is what truly makes him a perfect MCU casting. In a 2016 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor revealed he'd actively been training with members of the military in order to get into the mindset of Frank Castle, and received weapons training in order to make sure his handling in the show was authentic.
Jon Bernthal also focused in on the way in which he would be able to tell the story of the Punisher through the way he operates in combat, stating, "I think the way a character fights and deals with adversity and danger tells huge amounts about the character." This understanding of the physicality of the antihero - combined with a willingness to go above and beyond in order to authentically depict him - both teased the possibility of Bernthal winning something like an Emmy, and underlines why he is the ideal Punisher casting choice for the MCU.
The Punisher's Future In The MCU Just Keeps Getting Better The MCU's Evolving Landscape Has Built A Promising Place For The Punisher Close The actor playing the Punisher winning a prestigious award shortly before appearing in Daredevil: Born Again is itself a promising thing for the MCU, but it isn't the only aspect that makes the antihero's place and future in the franchise seem exciting. The MCU's recent shift into more mature-leaning shows and movies certainly makes the Punisher's return look perfectly timed, as where the early Phases of the MCU seemed too family-friendly to fully depict the Punisher without softening his edges, the newer era looks more able to show Frank Castle's bloodsoaked mission in a more comic-accurate light.
With audiences calling for more street-level Marvel adventures to balance out the galactic and extra-planar stories covered in so many MCU releases, the time has arguably never been more right for the Punisher to return and change the overarching Marvel Cinematic Universe landscape in many ways. This is doubly true following the acting talents of Jon Bernthal himself being recognized at the Emmys, hopefully preparing audiences for what will no doubt be an action-packed and emotion-filled return to the superhero genre.

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multimedia superhero franchise that began in 2008 with Paramount's Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. The franchise quickly grew in popularity, with Disney eventually buying out Marvel Entertainment in 2009. The MCU consists of dozens of movies and TV shows, most notably Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Loki.
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