Ever since Marvel Studios announced that the Punisher will appear in the next Spider-Man movie, fans have worried that Disney will tone down the character’s violent tendencies when he reaches the big screen. It’s a reasonable concern, as Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be rated PG-13 and the Punisher is Marvel’s most R-rated hero (rivaled only by Deadpool). But if today’s new trailer for Punisher: One Last Kill is any indication — along with literally everything else we’ve seen of Marvel Studios’ Punisher output — there’s nothing to worry about.
Punisher: One Last Kill is a 60-minute special coming to Disney Plus on May 12th, a week after Daredevil: Born Again season 2 wraps up and about two-and-a-half months before the Punisher returns in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
On April 9, the official trailer for Punisher: One Last Kill revealed it’s full of the kind of unforgiving violence people have come to expect from the character. By my count, he shoots at least half a dozen people and throws another off a roof in less than two minutes. Not only does this appear to be the same level of violence he exhibited in his own Netflix series, but it’s on par with what we saw of him in the first season of Daredevil: Born Again. (That was the first time the character was handled by Marvel Studios proper, instead of the now-defunct Marvel Television division, which wasn’t always on the same page with the movie division.)
In first trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the first thing we see the Punisher do is run over Spider-Man with his van, then shoot him in the chest. There was no blood, but it was pretty reassuring that Disney understands that the Punisher needs to be excessively violent. That’s pretty much his whole deal.
Bernthal was even asked about this in an interview back in January by ScreenRant. While he was as vague as most MCU actors are when pressed for specifics, he did explain that the Punisher in Brand New Day is the same as in One Last Kill. Given all that, it seems like Punisher fans will be pleased by the level of violence the anti-hero dishes out in Spidey’s next outing.
That said, I think it’s reasonable to assume that it’ll be handled a little differently, with less focus on the blood and gore he inflicts and more cutaways when he does something horrible. To me, that’s different than the Punisher actually inflicting less pain — and an entirely reasonable compromise in order to see him team up with other Marvel heroes.
