The Punisher Season 2 Release Date Announced [Update: Teaser Trailer Released]

The Netflix series The Punisher has dropped a new teaser trailer for its second season, followed shortly after by the announcement of a release date. The return of the vigilante Frank Castle is right around the corner.

The brief teaser shows a hand taking a drink of liquor and then burning a full pardon for one Frank Castle, aka The Punisher--followed by the tagine "back to work." The video only vaguely teases that the second season is coming soon, but a second, longer trailer dropped even more details, and was accompanied by a release date: January 18.

This date was actually leaked a few days prior, however. ComicBook reports that the Netflix Twitter account for the Middle East and North Africa tweeted a list of release dates for new content, which included that same release date. That tweet has since been deleted.

The Punisher spun off from Netflix's Daredevil, after that series' second season featured Castle as a prominent character being defended by the law firm of Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil). Being a part of Netflix's Marvel universe probably places it on the chopping block, since Netflix has been progressively canceling its Marvel shows. The company canceled Iron Fist, then Luke Cage, and most recently, Daredevil.

That only leaves The Punisher and Jessica Jones remaining. Generally Netflix has given these cancellation announcements shortly after releasing the last production season, so we could hear about The Punisher being cancelled by the end of the month. Jessica Jones has a third season currently in production.

There is some hope for more of all of these shows, though, as a Disney executive recently left the door open to bringing them to its new streaming service, Disney+. The impending launch of that service has been interpreted as a reason behind Netflix scuttling its Marvel shows.