What was Jon Bernthal's condition to play Punisher again?

Jon Bernthal has returned to Daredevil: Born Again. His return was possible after Marvel accepted his condition: a faithful representation of the character.

During an interview with EW, he recalled how he initially rejected the offer to appear in the show because the way series makers had planned to portray Frank Castle was at odds with his vision.

“It was like, let’s see if this works. Let’s see if there’s a real openness and a hunger to let Frank be what Frank is, which is dark enough to have the courage and the boldness to turn your back on the audience and to make it difficult, to make it enormously psychologically complex and to steer away from any cuteness or humor and to really go full bore," he shared.

The actor continued, “Ultimately, I didn’t see it. I didn’t see the version of Frank, and what they wanted from Frank [didn’t] really make sense to me, and I thought it would not appeal to the fans and wouldn’t be congruent. It was not something I was really interested in doing.”

Jon further explained how he clearly shelved out his vision for Punisher in front of the studio.

“Sometimes you have to be very, very clear with your intentions in this business. You can’t get confused with how much you love something, how much you love playing something, how much you want to do something. You got to make sure you’re serving it."

"You got to make sure you’re doing justice to the people that believe in it and doing justice to the iterations that have come before you," he noted.

Agreeing to his stance, Marvel Studios had reset the creative planning for the show, the 48-year-old revealed.

“They really brought me into the conversation,” Jon concluded. “We really got specific about where Frank is psychologically, where Frank’s at physically.”