Tom Hardy is ready to jump on the Marvel MCU train as The Punisher.
2015 is quickly becoming the year of Tom Hardy. First is the upcoming, highly anticipated Mad Max: Fury Road, mere days away. In September he stars as the Kray twins in Legend. If that weren’t enough, right in the middle of Awards Movie Season, Hardy will appear alongside Leo DiCaprio in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman follow up, The Revenant.
With everything on its way, Hardy is still anxious to get involved with more products, and if you ask me, the more the better. In a recent interview with Collider, the conversation went away from Mad Max for a moment and Hardy mentioned that he wanted to be The Punisher for Netflix’s own budding MCU.
“I want The Punisher,” Hardy said. “I want The Punisher, or Splinter Cell, I want something…I don’t know what I want.” Hardy is already in the middle of a Splinter Cell film, so the real news here is that he wants to take on Frank Castle’s Punisher, who would certainly join in with Netflix’s Daredevil on The Defenders team, a series that is already being built as well.
The Punisher is a tricky character, mostly because he is lacking any real power other than the power of revenge to drive his bloodlust. The vengeful character has been done over and over in all different facets of storytelling. On top of that, none of the Punisher films have been good really at all, and the previous performances from Dolph Lundgren, Thomas Jane, or Ray Stevenson. Tom Hardy would be a definite upgrade in the acting department, but does he fit the physical build of the imposing Punisher frame? Does that even matter?
Of course there is no confirmation from Netflix regarding Tom Hardy as The Punisher, but if they were smart, Netflix would extend an offer fairly quickly.
