Jon Bernthal has opened up in an exclusive interview about his return to the role of Punisher in Daredevil: Born Again.
The actor appeared at D23 in California, the Disney expo in which the company lays out its entertainment slate for the next two years.
Among the wild set of announcements was a third Frozen film, Incredibles 3 being in development, and a trailer for Captain America: Brave New World which introduced Harrison Ford as the Red Hulk.
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Add to that Toy Story 5 and a first look trailer for Daredevil: Born Again, and it was a stacked day for film and TV fans.
The trailer showed Bernthal’s return as Punisher, with the show marking his debut in the MCU.
Bernthal, along with the similarly returning Charlie Cox as Daredevil, first appeared in Daredevil on Netflix.
The Punisher appeared in season two of the show, before featuring in his own spin-off show which ran for two seasons.
We spoke exclusively to Bernthal following the trailer, shown only to the crowd at D23.
When asked about his initial reaction to knowing he was going to be returning to the MCU, he shared what he thought was most important about returning.
He said: “You know, gratitude, but I've said it before it's really not about coming back.
"It's about how you come back, and it's about doing it right, and preserving the integrity of the original project and the original work and what was brought to it, and that's what I'm really so grateful for.”
Bernthal was joined by Elden Henson and Deborah Ann Woll on the D23 media line, saying: “I'm grateful to be doing it with these people. Grateful that we're sort of preserving the intensity, and, again, the integrity of what we were doing before, and building on that.
“So you don't just do it. You got to do it right. And you know, I really feel strongly that we did.”
One huge announcement from D23 was also that, before season one is even out, season two of Daredevil: Born Again was already confirmed.
We asked Henson and Ann Woll about what to expect moving forward, with Henson, who is returning as Foggy Nelson, saying: “I think you know, people are going to be really happy.
"I think in some ways, it feels almost like we never left because of the love and loyalty and support of our fans. So, we're just excited.”
Ann Woll, who is also returning from the Netflix show as her character Karen Page, added: “I think all I'll add is that, you know, we care about this property, this story, these characters, on a genuine level, and we have some ownership and that's some stakes of stock in it.
"So we want it to be good as much as everyone out there does.
“It was really gratifying, even just for me to see, ‘oh, look, it looks great’. It was the first time we're seeing a lot of that footage, so I felt like a fan a bit on stage tonight.”
Topics: Marvel, MCU, Jon Bernthal, Disney, TV and Film, Film
Michael Slavin