Why Ben Affleck Wouldn’t Want His Daredevil to “Tangle” With Jon Bernthal’s Punisher
Ben Affleck is totally OK with leaving his Daredevil in the past, especially when it comes to fighting his Accountant 2 co-star Jon Bernthal as the Punisher.
Affleck, who starred as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in 2003’s Daredevil, recently spoke to CinemaBlend about how Marvel has changed over the years, recently bringing back Bernthal as Frank Castle/The Punisher for the series Daredevil: Born Again.
“Well, his Punisher is good,” Affleck said about Bernthal. “Daredevil was an interesting story. It was before Kevin Feige had stepped into the role of running Marvel. He imposed a kind of clarity of tone across those movies that sort of figured out the trickiest thing, which is, how do you balance a movie where you got people wearing pajamas and have superpowers, and how seriously you take it, and how much humor is in it, and how much you wink at the audience, and what does the action have to look like? It coincided with visual effects getting to a place where it could look really convincing. It made the way for great actors like him to step in and really get it done.”
He continued, “There’s a new Daredevil, I haven’t seen it yet, but I certainly love the character, I wish him the best, but I wouldn’t tangle with his Punisher.”
Bernthal previously starred in two seasons of The Punisher from 2017 to 2019 before it was canceled by Netflix. However, after he reprised his role in this year’s Daredevil: Born Again, it was announced in February that a Punisher special was set for Marvel Television.
At SXSW last month, Bernthal teased the upcoming project. “It’s going to be dark; Frank has no interest in breaking out the darkness. It’s not going to be easy. I don’t know if that’s the Netflix tone, then that’s what it’s going to be,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “It will not be Punisher-lite, I promise you that.”
Like Bernthal, Affleck also returned to the superhero world, but for DC in 2016’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2017’s Justice League and 2023’s The Flash.
