Ever since Frank Castle’s wife and two children were murdered years ago, he’s been motivated by only one thing. All criminals must be stopped by any means necessary. And yes, that includes lethal force. That mission gave Frank a purpose in life, but it also came with a heavy cost.
Viewers will get to look into how Frank’s war on crime has affected his mental state in The Punisher: One Last Kill, a Marvel Television Special Presentation on Disney+. Premiering Tuesday, May 12, 2026, it’s the first solo project to feature Frank in over seven years. Produced by Marvel Studios, written by Jon Bernthal alongside director Reinaldo Marcus Green, the special has a TV-MA rating. Bernthal has promised it will not be “Punisher-lite,” and will give us the darkest version of the character we’ve ever seen.
To understand what’s going on with Frank, here’s a little overview of everything that’s happened to him across the original Netflix Daredevil series, Daredevil: Born Again, and his spin-off series The Punisher.
Frank’s War On Crime
Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) first appeared in season 2 of Marvel’s Daredevil (2016). A former Force Recon Marine and war veteran, Frank, his wife Maria and their two children were caught in the crossfire of a gang meeting that left Frank the sole survivor. Since that fateful day, Frank has been killing every criminal in New York to ensure no one will experience the pain he’s feeling.
When he clashed with Matt Murdock/Daredevil, the show dove into what justice looks like for the people who feel the legal system has failed them.
One of the show’s best scenes takes place on a rooftop. Frank has Daredevil chained up with a gun taped to his hand. He argues that every criminal Matt puts in prison eventually gets out and hurts someone else. The only permanent solution is death. Matt disagrees, as he believes that everyone deserves the opportunity to try to better themselves.
Frank goes to prison where he crosses paths with crime boss Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. With some help from Fisk, Castle is pointed in the direction of a man named Dutton who reveals what really happened that day in Central Park. As it turns out, the whole meeting was a sting to flush out a powerful drug lord called the Blacksmith. When he didn’t show, the rival gangs panicked and started shooting. An enraged Frank tears through the prison cell block in a brutal brawl to escape.
Eventually, Frank learns that his former commanding officer, Colonel Schoonover, is the Blacksmith and kills him. Frank paints a skull emblem on his body and provides sniper support to Daredevil during a confrontation with the Hand. At the end of the season, he burns down his family’s old home, officially becoming the Punisher.
The Operation Cerberus Conspiracy
Season 1 of The Punisher (2017) reveals that Schoonover was just the tip of the iceberg.
Frank teams up with David “Micro” Lieberman, a former NSA analyst who faked his own death after he discovered a secret CIA assassination program called Operation Cerberus. The program was run by a corrupt CIA officer named William Rawlins. Rawlins used black-ops missions in Afghanistan to smuggle heroin back to the United States, hidden inside the bodies of dead American soldiers. Frank had been part of this program without knowing it, killing people he was told were enemies.
And then, when Micro got too close to the truth, Rawlins ordered the hit that killed Frank’s family.
To make things worse, Frank’s closest friend, Billy Russo, was involved in Rawlins’ activities. Not only did Billy know about the hit on Frank and his family, he used his connections to the program to fund his private security company, Anvil.
Frank kills Rawlins with his bare hands. Then he turns his attention to Billy. Their final fight takes place at the same carousel where Frank’s family died, a location Russo chose to get under his former friend’s skin. Frank doesn’t kill him. Instead, he drags Billy’s face across a shattered mirror, leaving him disfigured and in a coma.
With the conspiracy dismantled, Frank and Micro are pardoned by the government. Micro gets to go home to his family. Frank gets his freedom but doesn’t know what to do with it. He ends the season sitting in a veterans’ support group, unsure of what to do with himself for the first time. The war that defined him is over and he doesn’t know who he is without it.
Jigsaw and the Girl
Frank is traveling the country, trying to live a quiet life, when he meets a teenage drifter named Amy Bendix.
She took pictures of the son of a powerful senator kissing another man. Now she was being hunted by a hitman named John Pilgrim, a former Neo-Nazi turned religious killer. He’s working for the Schultzes, a wealthy conservative family who want the photos destroyed to protect their son’s secret. Frank takes her under his wing and becomes quite fond of her. Amy reminds him of his daughter. He may have failed to protect his daughter but he can save Amy.
Meanwhile, Billy Russo wakes up from his coma, scarred and traumatized. He has no memory of what he did, but the rage is still there. He’s manipulated by his therapist and lover Krista Dumont, who enables his darker impulses. Billy frames Frank for murder and leads a gang of troubled veterans as he hunts Frank down again. By the end of the season, Billy has become his comics counterpart Jigsaw without taking on the name.
The season pushes Frank to a breaking point. Being framed for a murder he didn’t commit takes a massive toll on Frank’s psyche. He visits his family’s graves. After speaking to the memory of his wife Maria, Frank makes peace with a hard truth: this is who he has always been. The Punisher isn’t a persona he adopted out of grief. It’s his true self.
He spares John Pilgrim when the man makes a plea on behalf of his children, which Frank understands. He does kill the Schultz parents for ordering Amy’s death. And then he finds Billy Russo bleeding out in a basement and shoots him twice without a word.
Frank abandons any hope of living a normal life as a civilian, and embraces being a vigilante as he continues his war on crime as the Punisher. He sends Amy away with money so she can live her life in peace. When Homeland Security’s Dinah Madani calls to offer him a job working for the CIA, he declines saying he already has one. The season ends with Frank in full skull armor, emerging from the shadows to ambush a warehouse full of criminals.
Fisk’s Rise and the AVTF
The Disney+ spin-off, Daredevil: Born Again (2025) takes place years after the events of the season 3 finale of Marvel’s Daredevil. In the first season, Matt has retired as Daredevil while continuing his fight for justice as a lawyer. At the same time, Wilson Fisk is out of prison and elected mayor of New York City.
Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF), a unit of corrupt NYPD officers, has adopted the Punisher’s skull as their emblem. They also employ the same brutal tactics Frank uses. Only this time, it’s innocent people who are killed and falsely accused of vigilantism to push Fisk’s agenda.
Matt confronts Frank at his hideout when the former learns the bullet used in the murder of Hector Ayala/White Tiger has the Punisher’s symbol on it. Frank makes it clear that does not approve of the AVTF using his symbol and terrorizing people who aren’t criminals in his name. He dismisses the AVTF as “fanboys” who are only using his brand to justify their illegal actions.
The two get into a heated argument over the impact Frank’s war on crime is having on the city.
But Frank spins it around by pointing out the real reason Matt sought him out: he’s looking for guidance on how to cope with the death of his friend Foggy Nelson. Though Matt is resistant at first, Frank forces him to admit that even though Foggy’s murderer Bullseye got a life sentence, Foggy’s life was cut short. Matt’s faith in the legal system wasn’t enough to save his friend nor will it bring him back.
In the season finale, Karen Page contacts Frank and asks him to protect Matt Murdock from Fisk. He shows up at Matt’s apartment to protect him from the AVTF. But as they fight their way through the officers, Frank and Matt clash again over how far they should go. Frank wants Cole North, the cop who murdered Hector Ayala, dead. Matt refuses and calls Frank a liability.
Frank goes to Red Hook alone to confront the task force but is captured and thrown into Fisk’s private dungeon. In the season’s mid-credits scene, Frank tricks the guard into accepting a bone-cracking handshake that breaks the guard’s hand and escapes.
Frank’s Absence
Frank doesn’t appear in season 2, but you can still feel his presence. In episode 3, Matt tells Karen he believes Castle is still out there in New York delivering his own brand of justice, even if he’s not aiding their resistance to Fisk directly. The AVTF are still using the Punisher symbol on their uniforms, and Bullseye also uses Frank’s name to lure the AVTF to a diner to massacre them in episode 4.
Karen also shows signs of adopting Frank’s mindset. She becomes more aggressive and questions Matt’s insistence on showing mercy to his enemies at the expense of the safety of his loved ones. She comes very close to killing Bullseye until Matt knocks the gun out of her hand with his Billy club.
Frank’s absence in Born Again season 2 will be addressed in One Last Kill.
The special will explain what happened to Frank after he escaped from Fisk’s dungeon. According to the official synopsis, Frank is trying to live a normal life without the need for revenge when an unexpected conflict pulls him back. Frank will also protect someone who reminds him of his daughter, a pattern that shows he hasn’t completely lost his humanity. The special draws inspiration from Garth Ennis’s Welcome Back, Frank, a beloved run that Bernthal has called his creative north star.
It’s been reported that the main villain driving will be Ma Gnucci, the ruthless head of the Gnucci crime family, played by Judith Light. In the comics, she came after Frank after he killed three of her sons. She will not rest until Frank suffers a similar fate.
After this, Frank appears in Spider-Man: Brand New Day (July 31, 2026), for a team-up that fans have wanted to see on the big screen for years. In the comics, Punisher and Spider-Man are reluctant allies who only work together when the situation calls for it, as Spider-Man hates the Punisher for his violent approach to crime fighting. The trailer hints Frank and Spidey will have a similar dynamic in the film.
Who is the Punisher?
Frank’s story is one about a man who turned his grief into a mission. For years, the conspiracy behind his family’s murder gave him a reason to keep going. Now that everyone responsible is dead, he doesn’t know what to do next. He’s a man without a war. And yet every time he tries to walk away, the war finds him. Or more accurately, he finds it.
Is the Punisher really making a difference in stopping crime, or has his skull symbol become a brand that attracts the same kind of violence it was meant to stop? We’ll see if One Last Kill can answer that question.
The Punisher: One Last Kill premieres on Disney+ Tuesday May 12, 2026 at 9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT.
