The Disney+ special, which airs tomorrow, will follow Frank as he attempts to answer “the essential question of who he is.”

Jon Bernthal says Frank Castle is ‘enveloped in sadness’ at the start of Punisher: One Last Kill

The Disney+ special, which airs tomorrow, will follow Frank as he attempts to answer "the essential question of who he is."

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and NME.

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May 11, 2026 1:42 p.m. ET

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Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle in 'Punisher: One Last Kill'. Credit:

Courtesy of Marvel

- Jon Bernthal tells * *that Frank Castle is "enveloped in sadness" when viewers first see him in the new Disney+ special, *The Punisher: One Last Kill.*

- The actor says the vigilante is struggling with "the essential question of who he is" and is unsure of how to proceed.

- "How can we get him kind of past that place and actually start to act upon things like justice…?" Bernthal asks.

Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle is fighting more than just hordes of villains in *The Punisher: One Last Kill* — he’s also fighting himself.

The 49-year-old actor tells* * that the fan-favorite vigilante’s upcoming Disney+ special, which airs May 12, will follow Frank as he comes to terms with his true self amid a bleak period in his life.

“I just think this version is… It’s always with Frank kinda digging into the essential question of who he is,” Bernthal explains. “Is he really this grieving father and husband? Or is he a man who's most comfortable knee-deep in blood and guts?”

Bernthal as the Punisher in 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day'.

It’s these two conflicting personas that leave Frank unsure of how to properly proceed in life. Although, it seems like the side of the good guys is calling… well, as much as it can for Frank.

“There's always been this sort of effort, I think, to try to get him to this next stage beyond the spiraling, reeling, kind of vigilante who's just trying to make people pay to sort of suppress his own trauma,” Bernthal says. “And how can we get him kind of past that place and actually start to act upon things like justice…? And that's what we do.”

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But it won’t be an easy journey to get to that point. “We're really honing in on him kind of at his end, when he doesn't know what to do and he's completely sort of enveloped in hopelessness,” he concludes. “That's kind of the place where this piece picks up.”

Bernthal last reprised his role as the fearsome vigilante in the first season of *Daredevil: Born Again*. However, he didn’t catch up with Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock in season 2 because *One Last Kill* is connected in the same “time and space,” Head of Marvel Television Brad Winderbaum told EW last December.

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The actor penned the special’s script alongside his *We Own This City* collaborator Reinaldo Marcus Green, the latter of whom also gets behind the camera as its director. Speaking with EW in March 2025, Bernthal emphasized that he was very hands-on throughout the entire development of *One Last Kill*.

"I went through the process," Bernthal said at the time. "I went in, I pitched, I gave an outline before I even put pen to page, and I felt like I did not want them to just hand it to me. They had read some of my writing, asked to come and do a pitch, so I did. And they've held me accountable to every step along the way. I really want to earn this and I really want this to be good."

Kevin Winter/WireImage

He explained that the special will focus on a “visceral, psychologically complex, unforgiving, no-holds-barred version of Frank where he's going to turn his back to the audience." He continued, “And nothing is easy, and all violence has a cost, and we're going to see that cost. I'm grateful that they're letting me go to the places that I really want to go."

A first look at this cutthroat Frank can be seen in *One Last Kill*'s April trailer, with the character ruthlessly slaying individuals on a rooftop and visiting the graveyard of his late daughter, Lisa Barbara Castle. "You think God’s gonna forgive us for the things we’ve done?” Jason R. Moore's Curtis Hoyle can be overheard asking Frank in the clip. "I’m not sure about me, but you? You ain’t got a f---ing chance.”

*One Last Kill* won't be the last time Punisher fans see Frank in action. He's also set to appear in this summer's *Spider-Man: Brand New Day*, which will see him go toe-to-toe with Tom Holland's web-slinger.

*The Punisher: One Last Kill* blasts onto Disney+ on Tuesday, May 12 at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET.

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