Written By: Nick Poulimenakos

When Marvel arrived at San Diego Comic-Con and entered Hall H, fans were surprised to see Jon Bernthal enter the stage first to showcase his upcoming series, The Punisher. Fans began to speculate that because Bernthal was there, this may hint at an appearance in The Defenders. Unfortunately, fans are in for some bad news and its coming from VP of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb.

In an interview with Collider, Loeb outlined why it didn’t make sense to bring Bernthal’s Punisher in for the highly anticipated Marvel/Neftlix miniseries:

“We haven’t gotten to that place, I don’t know if there will be a Defenders [season] 2. I think one of the things that is unique to The Punisher, and particularly to Jon Bernthal’s performance, is that the character can stand alone. Even in the comic books, Frank Castle’s Punisher is a character that sort of does well by himself. I think that when you start mixing [his character with others], it feels a little off. I’m not saying that it couldn’t happen and I’m not saying that it wouldn’t happen, I’m just saying [The Punisher] doesn’t immediately lend itself toward, ‘yea, I can see The Punisher and Luke Cage hanging out!’”

It looks like as of now, Marvel is sticking to Punisher being a lone wolf. Being a character who acts drastically outside the law on his vigilante adventures, it’s no surprise that he wouldn’t mesh well with The Defenders. Even Jessica Jones has her limits when it comes to stopping crime. Punisher takes no prisoners while guys like Daredevil and Luke Cage are more careful when it comes to putting down the bad guys. Besides, The Defenders already has all four main Netflix heroes, at least one supporting character for each and Sigourney Weaver’s The Hand as the main villain. Adding The Punisher might have overcrowded the show. It would still be cool to see Punisher pop up in the finale to assist the Defenders… but that’s just the fan in me…

Marvel’s The Defenders hits the small screen on August 18, 2017 while The Punisher begins streaming near the end of 2017.