Popverse's top stories

• The Boys showrunner reveals his surprise hope for the series finale
• Uh.... spoilers, but now we know why Captain America Steve Rogers has been mysteriously absent from the Avengers: Armageddon series marketing from Marvel
• Marvel's X-Men movie is a character-based drama inspired by classic comics, according to its writer

What's next after Punisher: One Last Kill?

That's the question that loyal Frank Castle fans have been asking ever since Disney+ aired its Daredevil: Born Again follow-up, which saw Jon Bernthal returning to the titular role after the show's first season. Of course, we already kinda know the answer to that: Punisher will be making his big screen debut in Spider-Man: Brand New Day this summer. But what about his small screen future? Is Jon Bernthal up for reprising the role yet again?

Well, yes, but there's a catch. In order to play Frank Castle again, Bernthal himself has to be the creative lead.

That's what The Bear star recently explained to Esquire, during an interview published May 12. "We’re in a place where I do think that this is the level of psychological complexity and just blunt violence that the fans really want for this character," Bernthal told the outlet of his Punisher journey, "I’m really down to keep doing more, but I think I have to be the one that’s making it."

To Bernthal's point, he has put enough blood, sweat, and tears into the role to deserve a leading voice in wheer he goes next. Not only has he put himself physically into the part - this Punisher does his own stunts - he's also been willing to go to some extremely difficult emotional places to get him on screen.

"Basically anything that was important to you," Bernthal says of Castle's mental state when we meet him in OLK, "You start to see as a corruption. You look at yourself as the reasons for the problems in the world around you, and 99 percent of the time it results in suicide."

And it's not like Bernthal being in the captain's chair has been bad for the character. Punisher: One Last Kill, which Bernthal co-wrote with We Own This City collaborator Reinaldo Marcus Green, currently sits at an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes - tying it with Paul Rudd's Ant-Man on the site's MCU rankings. You also may recall that before he passed, the late co-creator of the Punisher himself, Gerry Conway, called The Odyssey star "perfect" for the role.

In other words: Bernthal isn't the only one who prefers Bernthal as the Punisher.

Punisher: One Last Kill is streaming on Disney+ now. Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into theaters July 31.

Get caught up with Frank Castle via Popverse's MCU Punisher watch order.