Former ‘Daredevil’ Star Ben Affleck Says He ‘Wouldn’t Tangle’ With Jon Bernthal’s Punisher

Ben Affleck is happy to bring back Jon Bernthal for his upcoming action sequel, “The Accountant 2,” but he wants nothing to do with Bernthal’s “Daredevil” villain Frank Castle, aka The Punisher.

In a recent sitdown with CinemaBlend, Affleck, who played the titular vigilantly in 2003’s “Daredevil,” discussed how Marvel has evolved into the box office titan we know today. He also shared his thoughts about the studio’s most recent series, “Daredevil: Born Again,” which sees Bernthal return as The Punisher.

“Well, his Punisher is good,” Affleck said. “’Daredevil’ was an interesting story. It was before Kevin Feige had stepped into the role of running Marvel. He imposed a kind of clarity of tone across those movies that sort of figured out the trickiest thing, which is, ‘How do you balance a movie where you got people wearing pajamas and have superpowers, and how seriously you take it, and how much humor is in it, and how much you wink at the audience, and what does the action have to look like?’ It coincided with visual effects getting to a place where it could look really convincing.”

He continued, “It made the way for great actors like him to step in and really get it done. There’s a new Daredevil, I haven’t seen it yet, but I certainly love the character, I wish him the best, but I wouldn’t tangle with his Punisher.”

After Affleck’s take on the Marvel hero, Netflix adapted the comic book about a blind lawyer turned crime fighter into a TV show. The series ran for three seasons from 2015-2018. The show was then rebooted in March into “Daredevil: Born Again,” which is housed on Disney+.