‘The Punisher’ Showrunner Talks Mass Shootings Effects On His Marvel Netflix Series

Initially, the Marvel Netflix series, The Punisher, had a planned surprise release in October, as well as a special screening of the first episode at the New York City Comic-Con event. Marvel and Netflix chose to postpone the debut and cancel the screening after the tragic shootings in Las Vegas. Now, one day before the official release of The Punisher Marvel Netflix series, Wired reported that showrunner Steve Lightfoot spoke out about the shootings taking place across the United States and the effects they have on his new comic book series.

Mass Shootings Effects On The Punisher

When Marvel Comics and Netflix announced that they canceled the New York City Comic-Con screening of The Punisher and postponed the release on Netflix, showrunner Steve Lightfoot said he agreed with the decision. Newsday reported at the time that a statement indicated that it wasn’t appropriate to release the series in the wake of the senseless tragedy in Las Vegas.

Now, one month later, The Punisher hits Netflix as the seventh season of Marvel entertainment on the streaming service. This series follows The Defenders, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and two seasons of Daredevil. The Punisher made his first appearance in the second season of Daredevil.

However, The Punisher also comes out just two weeks after another senseless mass shooting where a man killed 26 people and wounded 20 more in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Fifty-eight people died with over 500 injured in the Las Vegas shooting last month.

When asked if the shootings made it the wrong time to make a show like The Punisher, Steve Lightfoot said that these shootings never factored into the creation of the series. They began working on making the Marvel Netflix series last year, before the U.S. presidential election.

In 2017, there is an average of one mass shooting every day in the United States; making it hard to find a time that is suitable to release a television show about the Marvel Comics character that has an arsenal of guns and kills his enemies.

What Is The Punisher Really About?

When talking about The Punisher, both Steve Lightfoot and actor Jon Bernthal have their own ideas, and it isn’t about gun violence in America. Lightfoot, who also worked on another series about a damaged individual in Hannibal, said that mass shootings and gun control have nothing to do with the story he is telling.

Jon Bernthal was a little more to the point in an interview with the L.A. Times, Bernthal said that the series is not about the exploitation of gun violence in America. Instead, it is about Frank Castle, the man who is The Punisher, and how he deals with the “unbelievable pain and… unbelievable cost to the violence that he’s gone through in life.”

Instead of a Marvel Netflix series about gun violence in America, Bernthal said that The Punisher is about how a person deals with personal pain. He also noted that The Punisher is not a hero, and if anyone looks at him as a hero, he has “failed miserably” in his job as an actor.

[Featured Image by Netflix]