THE PUNISHER
There will be (even more) blood in The Punisher s2…
Frank Castle’s back for another New York rampage, and Total Film’s on set.
There are many words to describe Small Screen’s current surroundings. But the one that springs most readily to mind is grotty. We’re in New York, standing inside a 1956 Spartan Imperial Mansion, a 45-foot-long aluminium mobile home. The decor is a symphony of brown: brown curtains, brown sofa, brown sheets. Bullet holes in the door provide a clue to one occupant’s identity: this is the latest hideout of Frank Castle, the scourge of criminals also known as the Punisher. But a clothes dryer draped with knickers reveals he’s not living alone…
The Netflix/Marvel show’s 2017 debut season saw the ex-marine-turned-vigilante take down everyone connected to the killing of his family, until he finally achieved a degree of peace. Season 2, however, sees him back in the fray. “He comes to the aid of a teenage girl, Amy, in episode one,” showrunner Steve Lightfoot tells Small Screen. “That begins a chain reaction. They have to go on the run, with the bad guys after them. And Frank quickly decides to turn the tables.”
In S1, the odd-couple bond between the gruff Castle and hacker ally Micro lightened an otherwise unrelentingly brutal arc. Here, the relationship between Frank and young grifter Amy
(Giorgia Whigham) will add similar notes. “We’ve saddled him with a very savvy, streetwise 16-year-old,” Lightfoot says. “There’s a lot of heart to that relationship, but a lot of humour as well – seeing him having to deal with a teenage girl.”
PILGRIM’S PROGRESS
We catch up with Jon Bernthal, who plays Frank Castle, on location at Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical Center, where some morgue scenes are being shot. Casually attired in t-shirt, sweatpants and backwards cap (“I don’t have any laundry detergent, so I’ve been wearing this for, like, five days!” he grins), the star is far less gruff than his TV persona. “She’s quite responsible for the world of shit that Frank is in, so there’s a lot of frustration,” Bernthal says of Amy. “They’re very much at odds. But a relationship is definitely formed, and it’s very much, at times, paternal.”
Another key new character is John Pilgrim, the man pursuing the two, who’s something of a mirror of Frank. “He’s a guy with a very violent past, who’s been given a second life,” Lightfoot explains. “Some people wipe the slate clean for him, but in doing that, he owes them. So when they need Frank dealt with, he’s the guy they send. It’s an interesting dynamic, because in some ways they’ve sent a version of Frank after Frank.”
Josh Stewart (previously Bane’s right-hand-man in The Dark Knight Rises) plays this supposedly reformed character. “He’s found a new life as a fundamentalist Christian,” Stewart explains. “So he’s very by-thebook, biblically – he does what does the Word tells him to do.” It strikes
us that the name John Pilgrim is rather on-the-nose for a man who’s reinvented himself as god-fearing. Is it his real name? Cue a very long pause. “Yeah, I can’t get into that!” smiles Stewart.
FIGHTING TALK
When it comes to established characters, Homeland Security agent Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah) and Frank’s group-therapy buddy Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore) are both back. So is Billy Russo (Ben Barnes), the pretty-boy Marines comrade Castle put in a coma in the Season 1 finale.
Some time before S2, the now disfigured Russo woke up; he’s now on the loose and in pursuit of Frank. “There are two villains this season,” Lightfoot explains. “Frank’s fighting a war on two fronts. Season 1, he was essentially reactive. He was reluctant to get into the fight. This time, the action is bigger, because Frank’s much more proactive, and taking the fight to the bad guys.”
So if you were hoping, after watching S1’s arm-snapping, neck-stabbing and eye-gouging through your fingers, that they might have dialled down the violence… nope. “I’m sorry, it’s going to be worse!” Bernthal remarks. “The fighting is going to be up this year.
It’s more visceral, stronger.”
“The show’s about a man who uses violence to achieve his ends,” Lightfoot says. “But what’s important is that it doesn’t make Frank happy. There’s always a cost. I also don’t want the audience to always condone what he does;
I want them to ask whether he went too far. That’s important.”
For Bernthal, if the show wasn’t so ethically troubling, it wouldn’t be true to the original comic.
“My main gripe with the writers is, I try to quell any attempt to make him likeable,” the actor reveals. “I think it’s a mistake. They try, believe me, and I fight them as hard as I can! It’s not about being likeable. It’s about being brave enough to turn your back on the audience, and challenge them to not like you. We’re honouring the source material by doing that.” Ian Berriman
Marvel’s The Punisher season 2 is available on NETFLIX FROM 18 January.
‘frank’s much more proactive, taking the fight to the bad guys’ Steve LIGHTFOOT