Netflix Renews Marvel's The Punisher for Season 2

Netflix has renewed Marvel's The Punisher for a second season. The streaming service made the announcement via the show's official Twitter account, writing: "Time to reload. #ThePunisher Season 2 is coming."

The Punisher made its debut last month, as the fifth standalone and first spin-off show borne out of the Marvel-Netflix partnership, and sixth overall with the team-up The Defenders. It starred Jon Bernthal as the eponymous gun-toting anti-hero Frank Castle, looking at his life after the events of Daredevil season 2.

While we liked the series' depiction of PTSD, the dynamic between Castle and Micro (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and thought it pushed Marvel shows in a new direction, overall reception of the show has been mixed. The Punisher has a 61 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 54 score on Metacritic.

Fans of the gory, unflinching drama have taken a very different stand to the series, pushing it to 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and an inflated 8.9 rating on IMDb. Of course, Netflix never weighs in on the debate with ratings, so we'll just have to assume there was enough interest in numbers.

The showrunner Steve Lightfoot (House of Saddam) has said in interviews that he already has ideas for a second season of The Punisher, which he now has the greenlight to bring on screen. Given the renewal this late in the year, we would be lucky to see the show return before the end of 2018.

This further complicates the upcoming Disney (which owns Marvel) rival to Netflix, since the company has said in the past that it would take its shows to its own service. With Netflix still giving the go-ahead to new seasons of Marvel programming, it seems a deal has yet to be put in place.