Marvel Gives a Brutal Reality Check to Fans Waiting on a 'Punisher' Spin-Off Series

Someone needs to start a GoFundMe for a 'Punisher' series starring Jon Bernthal.

February 24, 2016

The beautiful four weeks we spent thinking that a Daredevil spin-off focused on Jon Bernthal's Punisher was an obvious inevitability must now come to an unceremonious end, as the Marvel gods have ruthlessly squashed such hope as merely the work of some masterful rumors.

"I think that's something that people are speculating on, as opposed to something that's actually happening," Jeph Loeb, Marvel Television's Executive Vice President, tells Digital Spy. Perhaps sensing that he had just crushed the souls of thousands of Punisher and/or Jon Bernthal fans with a single sentence, Loeb then offered some vague hope to replace their original enthusiasm for the seemingly inevitable spin-off: "It's certainly our hope that any of our characters will be embraced and that people want to see more of them."

This, of course, is particularly shoddy news when considering how ready to punish Bernthal looks in practically every trailer and teaser ahead of the release of Daredevil's second season. "People have been coming up to me on the streets of New York saying, 'Do not mess this up,'" Bernthal recently told Entertainment Weekly, once again proving the potential blockbuster status of a Punisher spin-off. "This character has resonated with law enforcement and military. He's brought the war home with him in the worst possible way. And the best thing about him is that if he offends you, he just doesn't care."

Revisit the most recent Daredevil trailer below and mourn about what could have been (and what could still be but, hey, don't get your hopes up):

Daredevil unveils its second season on Netflix on Mar. 18.