25 Things You Need to Know about The Punisher on Netflix

18. The Punisher Served In Vietnam, But Netflix Changed It To Afghanistan

The original Punisher movie had Frank Castle as a former cop, but that is not who he is at all. Much like John Rambo, Frank Castle was a Vietnam veteran whose war-time stories were told both in the ’80s Punisher: War Zone series as well as in the pages of Garth Ennis’ acclaimed storylines.

It is interesting because, while many comic books at Marvel updated their heroes origin stories to keep them realistically in line with their ages in the books, The Punisher remained a Vietnam War veteran even in the 2000s, making him over 50-years-old at the time.

The most prominent story was in 2003 when Garth Ennis wrote the miniseries Born, which looked at the final tour of Vietnam for Frank Castle before coming home to his family and eventually losing everything and becoming the gun-toting vigilante.

Interestingly, thanks to the Netflix Marvel series, and the younger age of actor Jon Bernthal, the new look at The Punisher finally updated his origin. Netflix removed him from the Vietnam War, where he would be in his 60s by now, and placed him in Afghanistan as part of the U.S. Special Forces.