Marvel Studios is a beehive of activity these days (and we’re not just referring to the actual beehive that sat outside their old LA offices, and which once dropped onto one of our team’s head) – not content with Iron Man and The Hulk coming out next summer, today they also confirmed Matthew Vaughn as the director of Thor, and announced a new title for Lexi Alexander’s The Punisher 2, which begins filming soon in Montreal.
And that title is The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank.
Now, Punisher fans will immediately recognise that name as the title of Belfast-born genius writer Garth Ennis’ first arc on The Punisher comic book, which revitalised the character a few years ago and lent many story elements – including the battle with The Russian that was arguably the first movie’s standout – to the Jonathan Hensleigh/Thomas Jane original.
But there were other untapped elements in Welcome Back Frank – including a police hunt for The Punisher, and the forming of an organisation of crackpot vigilantes who took their cue from Frank Castle’s antics – that could be deployed in the new Punisher movie, about which only this is so far known: it will be set in New York, it will see Castle, his skull T-shirt and array of powerful firearms go up against a mobster (who will probably be longtime Punisher nemesis, Jigsaw), and after Jane bowed out, it will star Brit actor Ray Stevenson (Rome) in the title role.
And that maybe, just maybe, this will be third time lucky for Marvel in terms of getting one of their darkest characters right on the big screen.
As ever, the second we know more, we’ll let you know. We’re good that way.