15 Perfect Superhero Casting Choices Wasted On Terrible Comic Book Movies

9. Thomas Jane As Frank Castle - Punisher (2004)

The Punisher 2004
Lionsgate

Before Daredevil Season 2 aired in 2015, the Punisher could probably lay claim to being Marvel's most unfortunate character. Frank Castle had appeared in a litany of comic book movies and yet none really managed to capture his War on Crime - save for one.

That film was Punisher: War Zone, and though yes it is very stupid in a whole host of areas, Ray Stevenson's portrayal of Castle fits nicely into the War Journal comics of the late eighties and early nineties.

If any Punisher actor could lay claim to having been misused, really, then it'd have to be Thomas Jane. The actor portrayed Castle in Jonathan Hensleigh's 2004 film, and though Jane managed to translate Castle's grief almost perfectly, the film was also incredibly boring.

There's an almost aimless sensibility to the revenge flick, and it suffocates Jane's ability to inhabit Castle's psyche. Be that as it may, the potential was still obviously there, and though Jane went on to reprise the role in 2012's Dirty Laundry, there's no getting the way from the fact that 2004's Punisher should've done the actor better.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.