While we’ve seen time and time again that it’s hard to keep any reveals at Comic-Con secret, last year we got a really cool surprise by way of the short film Dirty Laundry. Produced by Adi Shankar (Dredd, The Grey) and directed by Phil Joanou, the short saw Thomas Jane reprise his role as The Punisher in a hardcore, unrated portrayal that was made purely for and by fans of the comics character. We just may be in for another similar kind of surprise this year, as Shankar recently tweeted a pre-VFX still from his “follow-up to Dirty Laundry,” teasing that the mystery character would be revealed at the Machinima Comic-Con panel on Saturday, July 20th at 10am in the Indigo Ballroom.

We’ve got a few more exclusive images from the secretive short to debut today, and we can tell you that the film stars True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten and was directed by Joe Lynch. Hit the jump to take a look at the images, and stay tuned for the very, very exciting reveal.

and here’s a very cool still that only has 30% completed VFX…

Again, for more on this short, make sure to stop by the Machinima Comic-Con panel on Saturday, July 20th at 10am in the Indigo Ballroom