Dolph Lundgren endorsed his Castle Falls co-star Scott Adkins to portray Marvel's next Punisher.
Both actors recently spoke to ComicBook.com about their upcoming Castle Falls film, where Adkins complimented Lundgren for his performance in 1989's The Punisher. Lundgren responded to Adkins, saying, "You'd be a good Punisher. I just realized that." To which Adkins responded, "You know what, Dolph? I agree!"
Adkins appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016's Doctor Strange in a relatively small role, as Lucian Aster, one of the Zealots attempting to bring Dormammu to Earth. The character was later suffocated by Strange's Cloak of Levitation. Adkins has previously spoken about how he regrets taking such a small role in the MCU, saying, "That is one role that I regret taking. I wish I would have held out and not taken the role, because now I feel I’ve blown my chance to be in the Marvel [Cinematic] Universe."
A number of actors have portrayed Frank Castle/The Punisher on the big and small screen, with Rocky IV and The Expendables star Lundgren portraying the character in the largely forgotten 1989 film of the same name. Following that, Thomas Jane portrayed the character in 2004's The Punisher, with Ray Stevenson portraying a version of the character in 2008 for Punisher War Zone. Most recently, the character was portrayed by Jon Bernthal in Marvel Television's Daredevil series on Netflix, going on to star in his own series on the streamer titled, The Punisher.
Whether Bernthal will reprise his role as The Punisher, possibly leaving room for Adkins to redeem himself in the MCU, remains unclear. The actor has played coy in previous interviews when asked if he will appear in any upcoming Marvel projects, saying he has "no idea," though he doesn't think "the question is about whether they're gonna do it, it's gonna be about how they do it, and whether we can do it the way the character and the fans deserve."
Whether The Punisher will appear at all also remains unconfirmed, it was recently revealed that Marvel Entertainment had initially blocked Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige from adding Marvel Television characters to the MCU altogether. However, there has been speculation that Charlie Cox's Daredevil is set to make his MCU debut in either Spider-Man: No Way Home or Disney+'s She-Hulk series. On top of that, Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin has also been rumored to appear in the ongoing Disney+ series, Hawkeye.
Source: ComicBook.com