During this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, actor Thomas Jane delivered a treat for fans of Marvel’s vigilante anti-hero The Punisher by reprising the role of Frank Castle for a gloriously violent short film entitled Dirty Laundry [which you can watch here]. The unofficial short saw Jane returning to the role he portrayed on the big screen in 2004’s The Punisher before being replaced by Ray Stevenson (Thor, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) for Lionsgate’s 2008 follow-up / reboot Punisher: War Zone, and offered up more excitement in its brief running time than the previous three feature-length offerings combined.
Sadly however, it looks like Dirty Laundry could be the last time we see Jane in the role, with the actor playing down the possibility of any further shorts during an interview with Nerd Bastards (via ComicBookMovie)…
“Well as far as The Punisher goes I kinda said what I wanted to say with the short film and it was the version of Frank Castle that I always wanted to see and it was very gratifying to finally put it out there. Phil Joanou — a great director — and Chad St.John — a fantastic writer — and we just kind of got a dream team of guys to put that together and I would love to see the three of us do a Punisher film, but I don’t know if that would ever happen. I don’t know, again it’s like the studio seems sorta bent on making a two hundred million dollar version of a comic book movie. So yeah, I think the fans are kind of missing out.”
Since we last saw The Punisher on the big screen, Marvel Studios have reacquired the rights to the character, but with a proposed Punisher live-action TV series collapsing earlier this year, and countless projects on Marvel’s slate – including Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Avengers 2 and Ant-Man, not to mention Joss Whedon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. series – it could be some time before we see Frank Castle back in action.
Originally published December 7, 2012. Updated November 29, 2022.
