'The Punisher' Premiere Date Was Finally Announced With An Epic New Trailer
After a ton of hype, Netflix has finally announced when it will premiere the first season of The Punisher. The streaming service released an intense, bloody new trailer for the upcoming superhero series on Thursday morning, and it reveals that fans have less than a month to wait before The Punisher premiere date on Netflix. The Punisher will officially arrive on Nov. 17.
That release date places The Punisher in the buzzy spot of the weekend before Thanksgiving. Interestingly enough, it also sets up a bit of a Marvel and DC Comics rivalry, since Nov. 17 is also the release date of Justice League in theaters.
The official premiere date is just one of the exciting things that will get fans pumped for the new Marvel series to be unveiled in the latest trailer. The two-and-a-half minute clip focuses largely on Frank Castle's army past, and the murder of his wife and children that led to him becoming a merciless vigilante. The trailer also introduces us to the Punisher's main antagonist, his former military commender Rawlins (played by 24 star Paul Schulze), and his sidekick Micro (Girls star Ebon Moss-Bachrach). It also contains a familiar face for Daredevil fans, as reporter Karen Page is shown having a heartfelt conversation with Castle. Check out the full trailer below:
The new standalone series will continue Frank Castle's story, which we first saw within the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the second season of Daredevil. In that show, the Punisher arrived as a tenuous ally for Daredevil, helping him take down the mystical ninja conglomerate known as The Hand. Though they wound up fighting side by side, Punisher and Daredevil butt heads constantly, disagreeing over the other's preferred methods of handling criminals. Namely, the Punisher had no problem killing any wrongdoer he came up against, whereas Daredevil has a strict no-killing policy.
Although the Punisher is a fan-favorite Marvel character, there's actually been a good amount of controversy surrounding the release of his series due to its timing. After the Las Vegas mass shooting, The Punisher team cancelled their appearance at Comic Con, due to the show's heavy featuring of gun violence. It seems as though the showrunners have kept the public's decreased appetite for ammunitions in mind when cutting together this new trailer as well, since it features significantly less gunfire than the bullet-laden first trailer (which dropped prior to the Las Vegas shooting).
The Punisher will deal with former Marine sniper Frank Castle's attempts to get revenge on the CIA commander that had his wife and children murdered. The Punisher teams up with a Homeland Security agent named Dinah Madani as well as his friend from the Marines Billy Russo. But his main ally is the tech-savvy David Lieberman, better known to comic book fans by his codename Micro. In the comics, Micro provides the Punisher with all the high-tech weapons he uses to take out criminals, but it looks like in the TV show, he'll be a more active ally, as he's shown advising the Punisher, hacking computers, and even getting into some physical altercations of his own.
It should be noted that although they're being depicted as allies to the Punisher right now, both Micro and Billy Russo become enemies of Punisher in the comic books, with Billy taking the mantle of his arch-nemesis Jigsaw. The TV series may not follow the path of the comics, but fans may still want to keep their eyes on those two characters when they tune into The Punisher. All 13 episodes of The Punisher Season 1 will drop on Netflix on Friday, Nov. 17.
