Trivia / The Punisher (2017)

• Cast the Runner-Up: In one interview, Michael Nathanson revealed that he originally auditioned to play David Lieberman, which makes one speculate who would've played Sam Stein if that had happened.
• The Cast Showoff: Giorgia Whigham displays her sleight of hand skills, doing a classic three card monte switch in a single take and slowly, but still just about impossible to catch.
• Channel Hop: From Netflix to Disney Plus. Netflix lost the distribution rights in early 2022.
• Deleted Scene: The first season had a scene where Frank and Billy get into a brawl outside a pub.
• Distanced from Current Events: Promotional plans for the series at New York Comic-Con were cancelled after the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Fake American:
  • Billy Russo and Dinah Madani are portrayed by English actors Ben Barnes and Amber Rose Revah.
  • Australian Daniel Webber as Lewis Wilson.
• In Memoriam: Season two ends with a dedication to Stan Lee. Ironic, given that Stan had nothing whatsover to do with the creation of the Punisher.
• Method Acting: In order to get in the correct mindset, Jon Bernthal trained with military members, along with receiving weapon training. Bernthal also "had to put myself in as dark of place as possible" to connect with "the emptiness inside" Castle, and isolate himself, including walking across the Brooklyn Bridge to get to set "to shed any outside influence of joy."
• On-Set Injury: Jon Bernthal broke his hand, tore ligaments and dislocated the same hand doing action scenes.
• The Other Darrin: The actors who play Frank's wife and kids in this show did not portray them in the photographs of Frank's family that were produced for Daredevil. This happens all the time, as in Daredevil, they just needed actors for a photo shoot, not also be acting on screen. One notable discrepancy is that in the photo Karen recovered from Frank's house in Daredevil, Maria is depicted as a blonde, whereas here, flashbacks depict her as a brunette. The in-universe explanation is that Maria probably dyed her hair blonde at one point, while the out-of-universe explanation is that they probably didn't want viewers to confuse Maria with Sarah or with Karen.
• Playing Against Type: Corbin Bernsen as Anderson Schultz, at least for modern audiences more familiar with his role as upstanding cop Henry Spencer on Psych than as skirt-chasing divorce attorney Arnie Becker on L.A. Law. Similarly, Eliza Schultz is far nastier than any of the other characters Annette O'Toole has played, especially with her being best known as the kindly Martha Kent. Expect many jokes online about Henry Spencer and Martha Kent turning evil and Frank shooting her being the ultimate Marvel/DC crossover.
• Real-Life Relative: Dinah Madani's parents are played by real life couple Houshang Touzie and Shohreh Aghdashloo.
• Romance on the Set: In an ironic twist Alexa Davalos and Josh Stewart, who play Beth Quinn and John Pilgrim in the second season, hooked up while filming and are still together.
• Stunt Double: Eric Linden, Spencer Mulligan, Justin Eaton and Can Aydin were stunt doubles for Jon Bernthal.
• Wag the Director: A positive example, as Jon Bernthal was very aware throughout filming that Frank should not come off as a completely admirable hero, and in a few scenes convinced the director to more clearly play up his darker nature.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Louis Herthum and James Frain auditioned for the role of Frank Castle before the casting of Jon Bernthal.
  • The creative team tried to work in a cameo for Claire Temple, and Rosario Dawson was very hopeful about it, but ultimately, they couldn't figure out a way to have her organically appear (likely considering there was no way she'd be inclined to help someone like Frank) and figured it was better to not force it. This is the reason why Curtis has to stitch Frank's arrow wound up, and later on Dinah's father has to put Frank back together after being tortured by Rawlins. And it is also the reason why Karen Page functions as the crossover character to link this show to the other shows, instead of Claire.
  • Steve Lightfoot has revealed that Karen Page was never part of his original plan for the show, and she was essentially written in at the eleventh hour. He also may have had more scenes planned for Karen, but Deborah Ann Woll's schedule didn't allow it. She was also shooting The Defenders (2017) while The Punisher season 1 was being filmed. Likewise, while a leaked set photo from the set of The Punisher season 2 confirmed she'd return, she only appeared for a cameo in one episode, due to this season being filmed simultaneously with Daredevil (2015) season 3, which is Karen's flagship show.
  • In one interview, Michael Nathanson revealed that he originally auditioned to play David Lieberman, which makes one speculate who would've played Sam Stein if that had happened.
  • Actor/writer Adam G. Simon pitched a gritty R-rated Punisher film within the MCU to Marvel and updated the pitch to account for Frank Castle's prior appearances in the MCU.
    Simon: In my take, we find Frank Castle as we left him at the end of the series, only now completely aware of the threat that superheroes and villains pose to mankind. So, Frank Castle has to go gunning for the person who he feels is responsible for the innumerable civilian casualties. The one who started it all by organizing these weapons of mass destruction to come together. Nick Fury. The twist is that Frank is being used, he spots the double-cross early at the end of act one. From that point on, we have a 3:10 to Yuma situation. Frank and Fury on the run from everyone, heroes and villains. It's 3:10 to Yuma meets Leon: The Professional by way of Winter Soldier.
• Working Title: Crime.
• Written-In Infirmity: In season 2, Frank gets a broken hand and wears a cast for a few episodes. Jon Bernthal broke his hand during a fight scene early in the shooting, so they wrote it into the plot.
• You Look Familiar: Tim Guinee plays Lewis's father, but also played an Air Force Major during the first two Iron Man movies.

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