Remember what Colonel Schoonover said in his final moments about something happening in Kandahar that he and Frank would never let go of? I think that will be a big contributing element to the plot of The Punisher. It's possible that perhaps Schoonover had become the Blacksmith while Frank served under him, and many of Frank's missions had actually been cover to protect the Colonel's opium pipeline.
- Confirmed. Second trailer shows Rawlins was using Frank's unit to commit war crimes during his service, and asked Schoonover to eliminate Frank to remove the one remaining witness not in on The Conspiracy.
Odds are that he'll wind up looking like Tyrion Lannister after the battle of Blackwater Bay at some point before the end of the season, courtesy of Frank Castle.
- Brutally confirmed. Frank manages to shoot him in the left cheek, then run the right side of his face down a broken mirror lacerating it extensively, before ramming him face-first into the glass again and again and again, then deciding not to kill him before giving him one last massive slam, leaving him with shards of glass sticking out of his face.
To some, it may have been an Open-and-Shut Case. In season 2 of Daredevil, Frank Castle was hunting down a man known only as “The Blacksmith” — the head of a massive drug operation in Hell’s Kitchen and the person responsible for the massacre in which Frank's family was killed. Frank’s hunt ended up leading him to Colonel Schoonover, who testified on Frank’s behalf when he was on trial for murder. And Frank kills him when Schoonover tries to take Karen hostage.
But wait, it may not be as simple as it all sounds. See, as much as it was implied that Colonel Schoonover was "The Blacksmith", it was never confirmed, and the Colonel never admitted to going by that moniker. It's possible that this was simply an oversight on the part of the writers to clarify for certain that "The Blacksmith" has been taken care of, but it’s also entirely possible that this drug ring goes much higher than Colonel Schoonover. If the Blacksmith is still out there, the mystery of who he or she actually is remains, and someone like Rawlins or Billy Russo could be the actual Blacksmith. It’s also possible, as we’ve seen many times over the years in comics, that the mantle of “The Blacksmith” is, like the Immortal Iron Fist, a title that can change hands, and if Schoonover really was "The Blacksmith" for a spell, another person could now be free to take over and use the name.
It all seems still up in the air given that is was never explicitly stated that The Blacksmith was dead, and it could be a small assumption on the part of viewers that leads to a bigger reveal down the road.
- This means that the real Blacksmith could actually be Bella Thorne.
- Semi-Confirmed. The show never states one way or the other that Schoonover was "The Blacksmith", but it does reveal he was not the head of the drug-running operation. That was CIA Agent Rawlins.
- Francis Castiglione
- Ross Romita, as a Shout-Out John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru, the two artists who created the Punisher.
- A variation of Gerry Conway, as a Shout-Out to the writer of the same name, who created the Punisher with the previously mentioned artists; a similar option would be a variant of Garth Ennis, writer of several acclaimed Punisher stories.
- Mixes of the names of the actors from the Punisher movies (Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane, and Ray Stevenson):
- Hans Elliott (Lundgren's actual first name is Hans, while Jane was born Thomas Elliott III)
- Hans Jane
- Hans Stevenson
- Dolph Elliott
- Dolph Jane
- Dolph Stevenson
- Thomas Lundgren
- Thomas Stevenson
- Ray Lundgren
- Ray Elliot
- Ray Jane
- Jossed, his only alias is Pete Castiglione.
- Confirmed, briefly. It contributes to another character Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
- Jossed. Russo was The Dragon, but the Man Behind the Man was CIA Agent Rawlins.
- Semi-confirmed. He is the final enemy Frank puts down in the season, but he wasn't the one running all the operations, or the one ultimately responsible for the murder of Frank's family (he wasn't even there when it happened).
- Jossed.
However, it's also likely that this may be saved for Daredevil (2015) season 3, since that show is essentially Karen's "home" so to say and her past may have more relevance there with that season being about Matt, Karen and Foggy once more taking on Fisk.
We know from the photographs Karen found when she broke into Frank's house that Frank was a recipient of the Navy Cross. Likely, the true details behind how Frank earned that Navy Cross are a lot messier than whatever's on public record.
It seems very likely that like in the comics, MCU Frank was born "Francis Castiglione" and Anglicized his name to Frank Castle later on. The teasers seem to imply that, given a shot of Frank and his kids admiring the Statue of Liberty, which greeted those arriving through Ellis Island.
- Semi-jossed. There's no indication that Frank was born "Francis Castiglione", but he does use the alias "Pete Castiglione" when he's laying low as a construction worker in the first episode.
- Jossed. They confirmed the November 11, 2017 release date on October 19, 2017, nearly a month before.
- Confirmed.
And consider the diner scene from ".380." Frank urged Karen to make up with Matt before Matt dies like Maria did. Frank was speaking from experience because his wife is dead and Karen is sitting there complaining that Matt has hurt her emotionally. Frank told Karen that he would chop his own arm off to have one more fight with his wife. Now, it's been some time since The Defenders, Frank re-establishes ties with Karen and learns from her that Matt is "dead". They'll have to have a discussion about how Frank and Karen have this in common now having lost their respective loves.
Also, look at Karen in the set photos from the park bench. She kinda looks like she's in mourning.
- Jossed. Matt isn't even mentioned, but Karen's attitude and clothing choices during her limited appearances on the show, especially when she first meets Frank, indicates Matt's "death" is still pretty fresh for her. In fact, it might have been merely a week or two since Midland Circle when the events of The Punisher kick off, as the Empire State Building is seen lit up in red in the distance during an early scene while Frank is working on the construction site, just like it was in Danny's last scene in The Defenders.
- Confirmed. And it was awesome.
In season 2, we get Amy, who the season beats you over the head that she is what his daughter would have been like if Russo hadn’t killed Frank’s family. Frank, has issues, but those probably don’t just stem from him losing his family.
Throughout the season, we have Amy becoming an exposition machine, explaining Frank’s world and why things are the way they are. The key scene being their card game, where she and he come to fundamentally different conclusions:
Amy points out that the dealer is always able to react to the understanding of the customer, so customer is always on the losing end, even if they think they’re in control. Therefore, the only winning move is not to play.
Frank on the other hand, believes that if its the dealer who fixes the game, then you want to be the dealer, not the customer.
We fast forward to the preacher hitman. He still has his family, but nearly loses them by the end. He and Frank are so similar to each other that he’s almost a walking parody.
The ONLY reason the preacher gets a happy ending is because Frank chose not to kill him. The preacher is essentially what Frank would have become eventually: an absentee father with a massive body count to his name, and someone holding his family hostage.
Their final fight with each other is borderlined absurd. Amy is free, so is the senator. The only one who actually needs help is the preacher. Yet, he and Frank have a fight to the (mostly) death anyways. This is because their violent nature is so heavily ingrained in them that they know no other way. It isn’t until Frank makes the conscious decision to select a choice other than what he would normally make, that the situation actually improves for everyone.
However, he wouldn’t have made this choice if Amy hadnt brought it up earlier. Amy essentially represents the part of Frank that’s missing, for him not to be the Punisher.
- Based on dialogue at the season one finale, he may have partial amnesia. The only thing he'll remember is his hatred for the Punisher for what he did to his face. He'll end up working for the mob.
- There is leaked footage form the set showing a scarred Russo. The audio is fuzzy but it sounds like he is shouting "You did this to me, Frank?" as if this was news to him so apparently memory loss does factor in to his arc in season 2.
- Confirmed.
- There is leaked footage form the set showing a scarred Russo. The audio is fuzzy but it sounds like he is shouting "You did this to me, Frank?" as if this was news to him so apparently memory loss does factor in to his arc in season 2.
- Confirmed. Russo was mentioned ot have gone under reconstructive surgery.
We know that Operation Cerberus was a secret CIA hit squad and the operatives were handpicked from the best of Force Recon, SEALs, etc. They would be going into the worst of situations and needed to be the best. Maybe, to give them an edge, Rawlins arranged for IGH (which was already working with the military) to supply him with combat drugs to make his men tougher, faster, more focused and heal faster. This isn't the same stuff Will Simpson was using, but something different, possibly an earlier or a lower dose version. The version we saw Simpson popping in Jessica Jones cause insanity. The Agent Orange version does the same thing, but at a much lower degree and just exacerbates their natural tendencies (Billy Russo's greed, Rawlins's power, Frank's dedication, Gunner's integrity, etc).
All of the members of Operation Cerberus would have taken it and it would explain why they seemly were tougher than usual Special Ops guys. It was really effective on Frank for some reason and it made him borderline superhuman, but nothing like Jessica, Luke or Matt.
- Essentially jossed. In the second season of Jessica Jones, IGH was revealed to be an unorthodox medical research center, and Dr. Karl Malus cut ties with Dr. Kozlov when Kozlov decided to branch out to creating combat enhancers. Additionally, Operation Cerebrus is not brought up much in season 2.
- Jossed. They do not appear.
- Jossed.
Amy Bendix, the street smart grifter with a mysterious past, is the one who gets Frank back into action. Perhaps she's a trafficking victim who escaped, or she's looking for a friend who was captured by the slavers, or she's connected to the Schultz family and is seeking redemption, or wants revenge for her father (her father in the comics was a small-town Sheriff). She convinces Frank to go after the Schultzs when she tells him all about their horrible activities. In Daredevil season 2, Frank beat a pawnshop owner to death with a baseball bat for selling child pornography, imagine what he'll do to an organization of human traffickers.
It's possible that John Pilgrim will be the Lewis Wilson of season 2. From a released set photo, he might be the MCU Mennonite, the assassin-turned-religious man.
Krista Dumont is a new character with no ties to the comics. But her character description as a psychotherapist makes it seem like she'll be heavily associated with Curtis. Perhaps Curtis brings the psychotherapist into the veterans circle to help out with the sessions. Since Karen's potential role in The Punisher season 2 is very limited (by the fact that the season's filming heavily overlapped with the filming for Daredevil season 3, on which Deborah Ann Woll is the female lead), perhaps Krista will be an advisor of sorts to Frank and serve a role with him similar to what Father Lantom has with Matt over in Daredevil.
- Mostly jossed. The story doesn't take much from The Slavers. Amy gets Frank back in action but she was not a trafficking victim. Pilgrim works for the Schultz family but their motive is entirely different. Meanwhile, Krista was an antagonist.
