Jon Bernthal on Why He Nearly Skipped Daredevil: Born Again

Since the 2015 Netflix series, it's become almost unthinkable to picture Charlie Cox's Daredevil without Jon Bernthal's Punisher. However, Bernthal recently shared his initial hesitations about joining the Disney+ revival, Daredevil: Born Again.

Known for his role in The Wolf of Wall Street, Bernthal expressed that he was not immediately on board with the creative direction proposed for his character, Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher.

"Ultimately, I didn't see it. I didn't see the version of Frank, and what they wanted from Frank [didn't] really make sense to me," he revealed to Entertainment Weekly. "I thought [it] would not appeal to the fans and wouldn't be congruent. It was not something I was really interested in doing. So we had to walk away."

It was only after a significant creative overhaul following industry strikes that Bernthal's perspective began to shift. The appointment of Dario Scardapane as the new showrunner for *Daredevil: Born Again* played a crucial role in this change. Scardapane, who had previously collaborated with Bernthal on *The Punisher* series, helped integrate Bernthal into the project's new vision.

"They really brought me into the conversation," Bernthal explained, highlighting the detailed discussions about Frank Castle's psychological and physical state in the series.

Warning! Spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again follow.