The highly anticipated first teaser trailer for Netflix’s The Punisher has dropped online today, CBR reported. The teaser is short, clocking in at just under 50 seconds, but still has the brutal, action-packed atmosphere we expect from the Punisher.
Most of the footage shows Frank Castle (played by Jon Bernthal) chiseling his Punisher insignia into concrete with a sledgehammer, but there are quick flashes of different fight sequences and glimpses of Frank with his family. “He’s coming to collect,” Bernthal’s Castle growls at the end of the teaser.
Bernthal’s iteration of Frank Castle first appeared in Netflix’s Marvel series Daredevil, serving as one of the antagonists Matt Murdock goes up against in the show’s second season. Fans raved about this version of the Punisher, so much so that Netflix decided this past spring to devote an entire spin-off series to Castle.
Earlier in the summer, Netflix surprised fans at San-Diego Comic Con and screened a trailer from The Punisher for the audience. The teaser released online is not the same that was shown at Comic Con, as that footage was reportedly exclusive to Comic Con.
Also starring in The Punisher will be Deborah Ann Woll, who plays Karen Page in Daredevil, and Ben Barnes (best known for playing Logan in HBO’s Westworld), who will take on the role of Billy Russo, a friend from Castle’s past.
In an interview earlier this month, Bernthal spoke on how he interprets the character of Frank Castle. “I think Frank is brutal. Frank is damaged. Frank is tortured. I think Frank, when he engages in violence, there’s something utterly satisfying and addictive for him to be doing that, and that may not be something that the audience can agree with or get behind,” the actor said.
Going on to explain the difficulties in capturing that dynamic on screen, Bernthal explained, “So I think that’s the real challenge: being bold enough to not make him too heroic, at least ‘heroic,’ is important to me. That being said, I think there’s Frank Castle inside of everybody. I think being a father and being a husband, he’s a character that I deeply empathize with.”
The Punisher is expected to premiere some time later in 2017 on Netflix.