Reinaldo Marcus Green’s The Punisher: One Last Kill is more of the same for a character trapped in a decade-long holding pattern.
The Marvel Studios Special Presentations were a purported series of one-off television specials that released two rather excellent entries in about six weeks, all the way back in 2022. It then immediately went into stasis. That’s not exactly surprising. Marvel Studios has struggled with the transition to television, with several projects abandoned and others barely making it across the finish line. Their biggest success so far has been in reviving Daredevil (though even that featured major upheavals during production), so it makes sense that if the Special Presentations were to return, it would be for a member of that supporting cast. Sadly, sense stops there.
The Punisher: One Last Kill finds vigilante Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) still struggling with the grief of losing his family. This has driven him to two things. First, Frank is hallucinating. Visions of his dead wife, Maria (Kelli Barrett, regularly torment him). His very much alive friends, Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), also appear in these visions.
Second, Frank has just killed the Gnucci crime family. The Gnuccis are supposedly the last criminal element actually connected to the murder of Frank’s family, though we’ve heard that before. Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that Frank already mowed through several of the Gnuccis back in his Netflix series.
The Punisher: One Last Kill fails to replicate better stories.
Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2026 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.
Frank left the Gnucci matriarch (Judith Light) alive, and now Ma Gnucci wants revenge. She arranges every hitman in the city to attack Frank’s small apartment complex and kill him. A lot of innocent people will be caught in the crossfire. But Frank is so depressed he can barely bring himself to kill people, meaning he’s going to have to work through his emotional issues if he’s going to survive the onslaught.
One Last Kill is clearly taking inspiration from Welcome Back, Frank, the 2000 Garth Ennis-penned Punisher comic that has (rightfully) become known as one of the character’s best stories. It’s also clearly trying to replicate the self-contained brutality of films like The Raid. Unfortunately, it fails miserably on both counts.
Welcome Back, Frank is so timeless because it takes the time to seriously focus on the innocent people who get caught in Frank Castle’s crossfire. One Last Kill barely gives these supporting players screentime, much less depth. The Raid was so captivating because of its brutal and intricately choreographed fight scenes. One Last Kill outsources much of its action to what is very possibly the worst CGI ever to be featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Deeply ugly television.
Photo courtesy of Marvel. © 2026 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.
When I say that The Punisher: One Last Kill features the worst special effects of the MCU, it’s important you understand this is coming from someone who has sat through not just the movies and Disney+ projects but every episode of Iron Fist and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. One shot in particular has already received discussion from the mainstream press. But while it’s easily the most laughable, it’s far from an anomaly. This is just deeply ugly television. Some moments, like a shot of a woman getting blood splattered on her face and then screaming, are so innocuous that one has to question why CGI was used at all.
But the biggest problem here is the writing. Jon Bernthal has been playing this character for a decade now. He, more than anyone, should understand the extent to which audiences have already watched Frank Castle go through this exact same emotional turmoil.
But the script, which Bernthal co-wrote with director Reinaldo Marcus Green, rehashes a journey the Punisher has already gone through in both the Daredevil and Punisher series. It’s repetitive. It’s stale. And now it’s being done with bad dialogue and extensive bouts of news anchor exposition. At only 50 minutes, the story massively rushes to plot in an effort to squeeze all of this in before the credits roll.
The bottom line.
This all seems to stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the Punisher character — the idea that Frank Castle’s grief is good or righteous or even the most interesting thing about him. It isn’t. It never has been. But so long as Marvel Studios continues to move forward under that assumption, we’re going to either see this character relegated to a supporting character or repeat this same story over again. Thankfully, those who were wondering if they needed to see this to understand the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day can rest assured knowing there’s nothing here they’ll need.
The Punisher: One Last Kill is now streaming on Disney+. Watch the trailer here.
Photos courtesy of Marvel Studios.
REVIEW RATING
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The Punisher: One Last Kill - 4/10
4/10
Brogan Luke Bouwhuis is a writer and film programmer whose frequent pop culture deep dives have allowed him to write about everything from the Richard Gere gerbil rumor to the history of the holiday yule log video. He co-hosts the Franchise Fiends podcast, co-captains the narrative shorts program at the Slamdance Film Festival, and co-created three children with his wife, Jessica.
