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Major spoilers for the Daredevil: Born Again season 1 finale to follow.

Greetings Popversians, and welcome to Lore Corner! Each week, video producer Ashley V. Robinson and staff writer Grant DeArmitt are going to take you deep into the pre-existing lore behind some of pop culture's most exciting adaptations, such as Marvel's return to the streets of Hell's Kitchen in Daredevil: Born Again. Enjoy! 

On Tuesday, April 15, Daredevil: Born Again aired its season 1 finale, the first season finale of the Daredevil saga's turn on Disney+. For a finale, however, episode 9 of Born Again didn't have much in the way of storyline conclusions, in fact, one particular part of the episode might as well serve as a backdoor pilot for another gritty Marvel story coming to Disney+ in the near future. That is, the story of Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher.

What we're going to get into in today's Lore Corner is what we think Daredevil: Born Again reveals about the upcoming, one-episode special that Marvel Studios confirmed all the way back in February, and how the storyline it seems to hint at comes directly from Marvel Comics. But before we do that, we want to ask two questions: Firstly, have you already seen Daredevil: Born Again's season 1 finale? Because we are getting into full spoiler territory here. And secondly...

Does Daredevil: Born Again have a post-credits scene?

It certainly does, and that's the reason we're talking about it here. Frank Castle returned to Daredevil: Born Again after a brief appearance in episode 5, in which Matt Murdock made him aware of the police hurting innocent people in his name. In the finale, Frank confronts those same skull-adorned policemen (now working for Wilson Fisk) and, as in most cases where the Punisher meets killers, things get bloody. However, things don't wind up too great for our boy Punisher, after he is defeated and taken into custody by Fisk's "Anti-Vigilante Task Force..."

Until the post-credits sequence, that is. A few minutes after season 1 ends, Frank tricks a prison guard into shaking his hand, then mercilessly shatters his arm and breaks out of his imprisonment. Now, the folks that thought they could copy and then erase the Punisher are in Frank's sights, and the next time we see him appear in the MCU, his story will presumably be about him taking them down.

A story which, if you read Punisher comics, you have no doubt seen signs of before...

What does Punisher think of copycats in Marvel Comics?

The way Punisher has been written has changed over his decades of comic book history, just as any other comic book character out there (ask your most obnoxious friend about Batman's "no kill rule" and you'll see what we mean). However, the modern, canon Frank Castle has held a pretty consistent view about folks who commit violence in his name: that is, that it's just as bad as other violence.

In the Garth Ennis-written, Steve Dillon-drawn 2000 storyline 'Welcome Back, Frank,' the city comes under the attack of three separate murderous vigilantes, all of whom claim themselves as heir to the Punisher's mission. Frank castle not only firmly denounces what they do but, once it is revealed that they've all killed innocents along the way, violently murders them as well. However, there's an even closer story in the Marvel Comics universe to what we just , arriving nearly two decades later.

In 2019's The Punisher #13 (by Matthew Rosenberg and Szymon Kudranski), Frank is confronted by a couple of active-duty police officers who sport his logo on some of their gear. Without missing a beat, Punisher tears the logo to shreds and rebukes them, saying:

"I'll say this once. We're not the same. You took an oath to uphold the law. You help people. I gave all that up a long time ago. You don't do what I do. Nobody does. You boys need a role model? His name is Captain America, and he'd be happy to have you."

What it appears we're about to get in the upcoming Punisher special is a combination of the two events that happened above - a strong refutation from Frank of both violent copycats and the agents of the law that use his mission as an excuse for their own violence. Though it's a safe bet that the latter will be the central villains of the Punisher special, it's worth asking if they'll be the only baddies we've met thus far; in other words...

Will Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk be in the Punisher special?

Speaking to Variety in an interview published April 15, Wilson Fisk actor Vincent D'Onofrio was asked whether we'd see his Malicious Metropolitan Mayor go up against the Vicious Vigilante in the latter's Disney+ special. 

"A meeting of those two has gone down before in the original Netflix series," D'Onofrio reminded his readers, "I’m sure it will happen again at some point. I don’t know when, though."

He continued by saying that, even though Kingpin will certainly be aware Castle has slipped through his grasp, "So far it’s a small part of the second season [for Fisk]. We have to see what the one-off thing that they’re planning on doing with the Punisher, that should be interesting to see. I don’t know if it’s a 'What If…?' film or if it’s connected to our series or not, but it’ll be interesting to see. I love Jon’s Punisher. I think he does a great job on it."

D'Onofrio's love for his costar aside, we respectfully remind you that the actor has already confirmed Kingpin won't appear in an MCU movie. Still, he's probably talking about something that would only appear streaming on Disney+, as that's the only place that any 'What If...?' stories have appeared so far.

And finally, since we're on the subject of Disney+...

What is the Punisher special's release date on Disney+?

Unfortunately, that is a question that we don't have too many specifics about. We know thanks to Marvel that the special, which will only be a single episode à la Werewolf by Night, will debut sometime in 2026, which Deadline says will be "alongside" Daredevil: Born Again season 2. Other than that (very large) window, however, we're pretty much in the dark.

That said, Marvel has a few huge conventions still coming up this year, and we have to imagine that release dates are part of what they're preparing as part of their presentations. Who knows? Maybe by the time D23 or San Diego Comic Con roll around, we'll have more info for you.

In the meantime, Daredevil: Born Again season 1 is streaming in full now on Disney+.

Fear not, we have the essentials when it comes to Marvel's Daredevil - especially with Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again. Check out:

• The key difference between Netflix's Daredevil and Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again, according to the showrunner
• The best Daredevil stories of all time
• What to watch before Daredevil: Born Again 
• Popverse Picks: Our favorite things for Marvel's Man Without Fear including Ann Nocenti comics, the Netflix series, and more
• How Vincent D'Onofrio reinvented Daredevil's Kingpin
• Marvel's Daredevil actors, ranked from Charlie Cox to Ben Affleck and even Rex Smith
• How Frank Miller accidentally killed a Daredevil cartoon (and Marvel killed a book to avoid pissing him off)
• That time we caught Daredevil actor Charlie Cox sneaking into New York Comic Con as Bluey