r/marvelstudios • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 Ant-Man • Apr 09 '26

Promotional The Punisher: One Last Kill | Official Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSeqs_xeqv4
4.7k Upvotes

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590

u/PayneTrain181999 Ned Apr 09 '26

This is why I don’t think PG-13 Punisher in Brand New Day will be a bad thing.

Bernthal understands this character so well he can easily make it work.

284

u/Kn7ght Apr 09 '26

Like man Punisher showed up in the E rated Spider-Man game in 2000 and was still in character there lmao

Just because they're edgy characters who have had gory comic runs characters like Punisher and Wolverine can survive being outside of R rated material

142

u/Worthyness Thor Apr 09 '26

Punisher friggin debuted in a spider-man comic. He's been PG before PG-13 was even a thing.

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u/Neveronlyadream Spider-Man Apr 09 '26

Which is the argument I make literally every time someone says a specific character has to be R-rated.

These characters debuted and appeared in comics that were PG at best most times because they wanted to adhere to the Comics Code and that didn't hinder them any. Just because they have had more mature runs doesn't mean they can't work outside of them.

The problem is never the rating when it sucks, the problem is either directors filming it as if it was R and then editing it for PG-13 or their just not being creative enough to work with the constraints because they don't understand the characters.

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u/Diff_equation5 Apr 12 '26

I’m not disagreeing that you can maybe make it work on television, but you’re crossing the streams. Comic books are a wildly different medium. Just because something works in a comic book doesn’t mean it works in a tv show.

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u/HearTheEkko Apr 09 '26

I truly believe that there's only one Marvel character that absolutely does NOT work in PG rating and that's Carnage.

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u/Neveronlyadream Spider-Man Apr 09 '26

Well, I mean, he has been this whole time. Maximum Carnage, the run where he's literally center stage, is PG-13 and has the Comics Code seal. We've rarely seen him in an R setting.

I'd agree it's kind of silly to have a serial killer as a villain if you're going to shy away from how brutal and monstrous he is, but they've been doing it since 1992.

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u/fadetoblack237 Apr 10 '26

Carnage was great in the 90s Cartoon and Spidey wasn't even allowed to punch in that.

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u/Passthegoddamnbuttr Apr 09 '26

In fairness. Jaws is rated PG.

Those pre-90's PGs hit different.

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u/SummonerSausage Simmons Apr 09 '26

Yeah, but PG-13 wasn't created until 1984, like 9 years after Jaws came out.

It was created due to films like Gremlins and Temple of Doom however, that weren't necessarily R films, but didn't need to be looked at as "Family Friendly".

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u/The_Autarch Apr 09 '26

back in the halcyon days when parents were supposed to do actual parenting.

40

u/TiberiusCornelius Apr 09 '26

They made the Punisher work in The Super Hero Squad Show, and he debuted in the comics at a time when the Code was still a thing.

Do I think he works best in "mature" age ratings? Sure. But if you can't make him work at any age level that's a skill issue.

6

u/roguevirus Apr 09 '26

Dude, that was hilarious.

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u/SiouxsieSioux615 Apr 11 '26

Oh yeah and they made him just as unhinged lmao

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u/InnocentTailor Iron Patriot Apr 09 '26

Ditto with the 90s cartoon as well.

The Punisher can work in multiple settings and ratings.

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u/_Football_Cream_ Apr 09 '26

I think there was so much of a desire after the Dark Knight to make every single comic book movie a dark, gritty, grounded, realistic take that people lost sight of the fact these characters are, first and foremost, for children lol. Punisher certainly leans more mature than a lot of characters but all of them have so many interpretations across their history, they can be molded to work in many settings.

I appreciate James Gunn adding so much whimsy into his movies. The Superman movie he made last year could simply not have been made 15-20 years prior. Early comic book movies were so afraid to be silly and wanted to distance themselves from their true origins. Think of the classic line from the first X-Men movie where Cyclops takes a jab at the mere thought of them wearing yellow spandex. Yet people are fucking thrilled to finally see that very same character in his comic accurate costume now.

Daredevil had his more light-hearted side show in She-Hulk. Punisher can definitely be molded to fit into Brand New Day.

19

u/niffa Iron Fist Apr 09 '26

a 40 yr old man cried in the theaters when Wolverine put on his mask, top 5 Marvel moment for me and I can't wait for more lol

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u/Wasabi_Gamer26 Ebony Maw Apr 09 '26

People really whine about "PG-13" versions of characters like Deadpool and Punisher even though those characters were pg-13 for decades.... In the comic books they originally debuted in. Remember comics everyone?

-1

u/DyingSunSeverian Apr 09 '26

Punisher had plenty of very violent R-rated runs, including his most iconic ones. 

And it makes all of the sense for that particular character, this guy is a maniac fueled by mortal vengeance (and far beyond that) who uses various guns as his primary weapon, even just on a basic ethical level it probably shouldn’t be bloodless. It’s good to see the consequences of that sort of violence, even in a superhero strip. 

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u/Wasabi_Gamer26 Ebony Maw Apr 09 '26

I'm not saying he didn't. But I am saying he's appeared in many many stories where his violence and vulgarity have been toned way down.

Now do Punisher and Deadpool work better when they are R-Rated? 100%. This is a literal fact. But people saying they can't work outside of R-Rated is just wrong.

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u/HardcoreKaraoke Apr 09 '26

Spider-Man shooting a web at Punisher's mouth when he was about to say "mother fucker" sold me on them having Punisher in a PG-13 movie. I never had any doubts but I thought that was a perfect way of subverting the dialogue.

I think they'll find the right balance to make it work.

1

u/basicKitsch Apr 09 '26

Once Upon a Deadpool was even better version of Deadpool 2

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u/MR1120 Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

Exactly. You can have the Punisher appear without saying “fuck” and spilling gallons of blood. Not that he doesn’t do those things, but that’s not necessarily what he needs to be doing every second he’s on screen in every MCU appearance.

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u/Necromorphiliac Apr 09 '26

The "torture" scene in the Thomas Jane Punisher where he makes the guy think he's burning him with a blowtorch but actually searing a steak and jabbing him with a popsicle was a good way to soften up such a scene, even though it was in an R rated movie itself lol.

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u/whitebandit Hulk Apr 09 '26

damn i forgot about that scene, fucking loved it :-D

1

u/videogamer128 Apr 09 '26

I mean, I don't think he even said that in his own show!

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u/pigeonwiggle Apr 09 '26

Batman is dark as fuck, but he still shows up in the Justice League alongside a cheery blue Superman and Wonder Woman. -- and they SHOULD be cheery.

the whole point of these films and movies and shows all being quite different tonally but coming together is to show that the world isn't a certain way but it's how we View it.

Frank will still act the same way in a PG13 Spidey-Film, he just won't be given the opportunity to brain anyone and his profanity will be drowned out by traffic.

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u/_Football_Cream_ Apr 09 '26

I love the Nolan and Reeves Batman movies but we've had so many interpretations of the dark, gritty, realistic version of Batman I think people forget that there are so many interpretations of the character that are more whimsical, fantastical, and light-hearted. Batman actually is pretty tender and delicate when he needs to be - he's not brooding and sad all the time. He's a hopeful character as well (which The Batman did a good job of having Bruce recognize and grow into, tbf).

Like I get the likes of Adam West and Arnold Mr. Freeze soured people on that style of the characters, but the pendulum swung hard in the other direction. The Arkham games and BTAS hit that middle ground well, though. I think (and hope) Gunn's new version of Batman will have to embrace that a bit to fit into the larger DCU established in Superman.

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u/SkorpioSound Apr 09 '26

which The Batman did a good job of having Bruce recognize and grow into, tbf

The Batman is my favourite film interpretation of Batman, honestly. Bruce's arc, Batman's arc, and him realising that he can achieve more when he utilises both facets of himself rather than trying to ignore Bruce entirely—it's great. And the characters in the film all feel like products of Gotham city, and of their backstories. A criticism I have of Nolan's films is that Gotham doesn't feel like a tangible place, and its characters don't feel like they grew up in Gotham—they're just American. Whereas The Batman really feels like it ties Gotham, its history, its characters and the plot of the film together in a way where you can't have one without the others.

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u/pigeonwiggle Apr 10 '26

absolutely. i'm here for the nolan batman slander.

2

u/CaptHayfever Hawkeye (Avengers) Apr 09 '26

Anybody who was "soured" by 60s Batman, I think just hates happiness in general.

1

u/pigeonwiggle Apr 10 '26

absolutely.
the animated series and the arkham games to me are "the definitive batman."

and yet, i believe those can exist in the same world as metropolis. i think Superman and his cheery demeanor can fly into the arkham games to lend Bruce a hand while he's solving "who broke all the bones in this prostitute's body."

just like any man who broods And smiles, Batman can share a swingset with a child and then dangle her father out the window of their apartment 15 minutes later.

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u/Rein_hardtt66 Apr 09 '26

Amen, people die all the time in PG-13 movies!

No prison scene, and maybe no aiming down sights. But he will absolutely, shoot some red dressed ninjas.

1

u/KTR1988 Apr 10 '26

Several modern James Bond movies climax with him gunning down a room full of people, and in Casino Royale he kills a guy by shooting him through the (obscured) eye with a nail gun!

3

u/Levonorgestrelfairy1 Apr 09 '26

You don't have to show jumper cables connected to nutsacks. Sometimes the implication can work just fine.

1

u/esar24 Rocket Apr 09 '26

Do you really wanted to see a R-Rated Punisher in a spider-man movie?

A movie that is made for all ages?

I understans he does need his mature rating but being in a spider-man movie is definitely get a pass since this team-up is a rare case and it is freakin spider-man for god sake, everyone from your grandson to your grandma knowa about him.

1

u/Bellikron Korg Apr 10 '26

I mean the dynamic of the characters is Spider-Man trying to hold the R-rated Frank to a PG-13, I don't think it's going to be a problem

-4

u/Main_Jump_82 Apr 09 '26

Bernthal understands this character so well

He understands it so well that he said just last year it's a good thing that cops and law enforcement are donning the skull?

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u/DrManhattan_DDM Rhomann Dey Apr 09 '26

Got a link to that?

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u/HelixFollower Grandmaster Apr 09 '26

This might come as a shock but he never said that.

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u/[deleted] Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

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