Jon Bernthal Makes Surprise Appearance At Luke Cage Panel

The Punisher Cameos At SDCC Cage Panel

♦At yesterday’s Luke Cage panel at SDCC, Jon Bernthal aka The Punisher made a surprise guest appearance, which was captured by our friends at Flicks and The City…

By January 2016, ahead of the debut of Bernthal as armed vigilante Frank Castle / Punisher in the second season of Daredevil, Netflix was in “very early development” on a spin-off series titled The Punisher, and was looking for a showrunner. The series would be centered on Bernthal as Castle, and was described as a stand-alone series, outside of the series leading up to The Defenders. Loeb implied that Marvel Television had not instigated the development of the spin-off and were focusing on making “the best 13 episodes of Daredevil season two” at the time, but did say, “I’m never going to discourage a network from looking at one of our characters and encouraging us to do more….If we are lucky enough that through the writing, through the direction, through the actor that people want to see more of that person, terrific.”

In April 2016, Marvel and Netflix ordered The Punisher, along with confirming Bernthal’s involvement and naming Steve Lightfoot as showrunner.