The Punisher: One Last Kill is available on Disney+ now.
Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle was conspicuous by his absence in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, which is perhaps one of the reasons that Season 2 didn’t quite live up to the standard of the first. But there’s a silver lining to that particular cloud. Bernthal’s character is back at the forefront of the MCU in 2026, starting with the “Special Presentation” short film The Punisher: One Last Kill. If you crave more of Frank wrestling with his personal demons and laying waste to endless hordes of criminal scum, you’ve come to the right place. If you were wanting a dramatically different take on the character from what we’ve seen in past MCU projects, you might come away slightly disappointed.
One Last Kill reunites Bernthal with We Own This City and King Richard’s Reinaldo Marcus Green, with Green directing and both men co-writing the teleplay. The cast also includes Punisher TV veteran Jason R. Moore as Frank’s old comrade Curtis Hoyle and Judith Light as a woman who veers into Frank’s orbit.
The one-shot presumably takes place after Frank’s escape in the post-credits scene of Daredevil: Born Again Season 1. One might naturally assume that Frank would immediately resume his vendetta against Vincent D’Onofrio’s Mayor Fisk and the skull-adorned members of the Anti-Vigilante Task Force, but apparently, he only dwells on the past when it involves grieving over the deaths of his family.
There’s precious little connective tissue between One Last Kill and Born Again (or most other MCU projects, for that matter). One could just as easily jump straight from the end of the Netflix series to this special and not miss a beat. There’s perhaps some missed opportunity in that regard, but there is something to be said for a film that seeks to tell a solid, standalone Punisher tale with no fluff or baggage.
Again, for all that Bernthal has noted a desire to tell a different and more psychologically driven Punisher tale, One Last Kill isn’t a dramatic departure from what we saw with the Netflix series. It’s more visually dynamic, to be certain, and Green’s presence is certainly appreciated there. But once again, we’re faced with a Frank Castle struggling between the boundless well of rage and sadness that motivates him and a desire to find some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. It feels like the MCU’s Punisher has been on the brink of retirement for most of his more than 10-year existence.
But if it doesn’t do anything particularly new with the character, One Last Kill nonetheless works as a lean, mean action romp in a particularly seedy section of the MCU’s New York. The film’s 45-minute format is arguably its greatest asset. The Netflix show suffered from those long stretches where Frank would hide out in his base or Madani’s apartment in between shootouts. Here, there’s only so much time to stop and navel-gaze before the violence breaks out. Bernthal and Green give us a Punisher short film that’s equal parts The Raid (with a prolonged shootout in a grimy apartment complex) and John Wick. There’s even a bit of a gaming influence with the way Frank cycles through weapons and loots the corpses of his fallen enemies. The plot, such as it is, is only there to steer Frank from Point A to B and from blood-soaked encounter to the next.
Unsurprisingly, One Last Kill leans very heavily on Bernthal to carry the day, and he doesn’t disappoint. Early on, the focus is on Frank marinating in a psychologically spicy stew of misery and paranoia, with more than a whiff of Apocalypse Now’s opening scene. Later, that rage surges to the forefront as Frank singlehandedly takes on the whole of Little Sicily in an orgy of violence. In either case, the special simply wouldn’t work without Bernthal’s magnetic portrayal of Frank there to carry the day. It’s practically a one-man show, and the actor shoulders that burden well. The rest of the supporting cast, including Moore’s Curtis Hoyle, are there mainly to give voice to Frank’s surging emotions and personal struggles.
There are also certainly valid criticisms to be leveled at how Frank is portrayed in the MCU. Outside of maybe Daredevil: Season 2, the character has always felt like a stark departure from the classic comic book source material. As portrayed by comic creators like Garth Ennis, Frank Castle is a stoic granite slab of a human being who is constantly propelled forward by a cold fury towards all criminals and an unwavering commitment to his “mission.” The MCU Frank, by comparison, is a frenetic, pill-addicted ball of anger, machismo, and longing who needs periodic reminders of why he does what he does. In a lot of ways, Bernthal’s performance has more Wolverine than Frank Castle to it. But like it or not, that’s the vision the MCU has committed to, and it’s one that One Last Kill doubles down on.
It would have been nice to see this special devote a little more attention to its anemic supporting cast. Light is compelling in the two scenes in which she’s given much of anything to do, but she’s badly underutilized, and her character is basically forgotten before the end. But even that is more than most of the cast can boast. If it’s not Frank Castle, this special only has a passing interest in the character.
