Add your promotional text...
5 Ways ‘The Punisher: One Last Kill’ Could Have Been Better
Despite getting some good reviews, 'The Punisher: One Last Kill' suffers from a weak plot. Here are 5 ways the Marvel TV Special featuring The MCU Punisher could have been better.
MOVIES
Culture Treasury Staff
9/16/20264 min read
'The Punisher: One Last Kill', the Marvel Studios TV Special of 2026 dedicated to the MCU’s criminal killing machine Frank Castle aka The Punisher, has received overall favourable reviews. While the action, the direction and acting all deserve applause, the major gripe a lot of Punisher fans have with the show is related to its plot and script. The story is kinda flat and there isn’t anything substantial in the narrative that hasn’t been explored before in a Punisher story. Here are 5 ways ‘The Punisher: One Last Kill’ could have been better. Spoilers for the Marvel TV show follow, so read only after you have seen it.
Ma Gnucci is the main crime lord but The Punisher doesn’t know that
Let’s say that Ma Gnucci is the main crime lord but The Punisher does not know that. No one knows about her true role in the organization except the Gnucci family members. But they die at the hands of The Punisher. After killing her youngest son, The Punisher leaves her in the car, which is in line with how it actually happened in One Last Kill TV show. But, one way to add depth to the Ma Gnucci storyline is that she does not come back just for a swift revenge, but she makes him suffer instead, without leaving any clue that her organisation is the one harrowing Frank Castle, leaving him flustered about whom to kill now, especially with the PTSD troubling him. Since The Punisher does not know who is operating from behind the scenes, he would have to work to decipher the Gnucci trail.
Ma Gnucci could, of course, kill the MCU Punisher. He could be taken out easily when he comes out of the building he's living at. But we are assuming that since he wiped out her husband and sons, she would want to take some time to torture him first. And also hoping that Frank would find a way to outsmart her.
Make Ma Gnucci disappear before The Punisher could kill her
Another way to build a better Punisher story is to assume that The Punisher does know that Ma Gnucci is also actively involved in the crime scene and that she is the main crime lord. He plans to strike fast and start with her. But, she is hard to track. So, he chooses to go after the others first and after those four Gnucci family members die, Ma Gnucci is next. But to make things more interesting, let’s say she disappears. Make The Punisher work hard to track her down and even when he does, make it feel like Ma Gnucci is much ahead in the brains department compared to The Punisher. Our point here is that everyone knows what The Punisher is capable of and what he can do, there are few surprises there; but no one knows how smart Ma Gnucci (or another villain) can be or what she can be capable of. The core idea is to utilize the main villains better.
Bring in two Punisher baddies to make things difficult for Frank Castle
This would be a classic and an icing on the cake of the Punisher trope. The horde of criminals that descended on the building where The Punisher is shown to be living consists mostly of street thugs and low-level criminals. While Ma Gnucci thinks they can eventually wear him down with sheer numbers, it would have been better if she got two elite level baddies to come after Frank Castle. Why two? Because we have seen (and read) what happens when The Russian comes in to say hello to Thomas Jane’s Punisher (and Garth Ennis' Marvel Knights Punisher). The Jon Bernthal Punisher has also fought Jigsaw and The Pilgrim, but in one-on-one battles. Sure, he also faced Jigsaw’s trained mercenaries in the TV show and they got the upper hand, but an elite-level baddie is always more interesting for The Punisher to handle. Hence, up the stakes a little for Punisher fans and bring in two baddies.
Show The Punisher using his wits and resilience to turn the tables on Ma Gnucci
Frank Castle has it easy in One Last Kill. No, really. He slayed Papa Gnucci and his three sons without facing a lot of hurdles and inexplicably left Ma Gnucci alive. She could easily have got Frank Castle captured and tortured instead of leaving Frank’s fate to chance by raising a bounty on his head. All that personal talk with him could have been done in the torture chamber. Or maybe at some remote location in the open countryside? Frank escaping his captors from a building has been explored before, so why not change the location and force Frank to override his PTSD and enter into the tactician’s mindset through his power of will and mind. That would make it more interesting and make Frank more admirable as a hero.
Give the NYPD something to do
In The Punisher: One Last Kill, Frank Castle is seen killing a guy in broad daylight. He seems to have to fear of capture by the authorities; he just struts about, serving the bloody version of his vigilante justice, without the fear of the cops. Also, when the mobsters attack the building Frank is living in, there is little to no police activity. The comic book Frank Castle would have been very careful about run-ins with cops; he doesn’t want to hurt anyone who is on the side of the law. Someone in the NYPD should have had an important role to play in One Last Kill, even when the locality is known as a former Gnucci family stronghold.
What are your thoughts? How can you make The Punisher: One Last Kill better? Let us know what you think.