Ben Barnes blew us all away with his performance as Billy Russo aka Jigsaw in the two seasons of The Punisher. While Barnes plays a morally ambiguous character well (also referring to his role as Logan in HBO’s Westworld), Barnes apparently was in talks to play an MCU superhero. Some people had wanted Barnes to play the new Batman for DC, but that role went to Robert Pattinson. While it’s been obvious that the Netflix Marvel shows are not canon within the movie MCU, it is interesting that the studio would have talked to him about playing a good guy in the movie universe.
Barnes spoke to Digital Spy, answering when asked if he’d work with Marvel again:
“Yeah, for sure, for sure. I did talk to them about something this year, but it was a bit too close to doing The Punisher, I think, for them. But, you know, they have proof that you can – particularly if it was on TV, you can go back and do a movie if there’s a character that’s right. I was definitely talking about a couple of superheroes last year.”
Barnes was then asked if something could happen, to which he answered:
“No. It didn’t work out for whatever reason, but definitely, there’s still room for that in my future. As long as they hurry up. I don’t want to be a 50-year-old superhero.”
Even if The Punisher hadn’t been canceled, it’s doubtful Barnes would have returned considering Frank Castle finally killed Billy in season two’s finale. Fans would more than love for the likes of Jon Bernthal and Charlie Cox to reprise their roles in some sort of capacity, but as for Barnes, if we see him in Marvel again, it will be a different character.
What superhero would you like to see Barnes play?
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
