Nooo! Claire Temple Won’t Appear in The Punisher
It’s no secret that Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple has quickly become an audience favorite on Marvel’s roster of Netflix shows. After Dawson’s breakout performance in the first season of Daredevil, she and Netflix worked out “a larger exclusive TV deal” which brought the character to Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Daredevil Season 2, and the upcoming The Defenders.
Unfortunately, it looks like Claire won’t appear in at least one of the Hell’s Kitchen shows: The Punisher.
In an interview with Collider, Dawson was asked why Claire never contacts or recruits Daredevil to fight The Hand when they show up in Iron Fist. Dawson explained that it was mostly scheduling constraints. “[Charlie Cox] was working on The Defenders, and he’s about to start up Daredevil again,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s really hard to get all of those casts together. For The Defenders, it was difficult to get everybody together. People are busy! There are so many times where I really want it to happen. I really wanted to do a cameo on The Punisher, but it doesn’t always work that way.”
While Claire’s role in Iron Fist did feel a touch shoehorned in, I always enjoy seeing Dawson on-screen, so I’m sad we won’t see her in The Punisher. She brings the character such warmth, decency, and humor, and Claire provides some much-appreciated perspective on these super-powered shows. Thematically, of course, Claire might’ve been less of a fit on The Punisher than in the other series, but I personally would’ve loved a scene between the healer Claire and the fire-and-punishment Frank Castle. They clearly have very different approaches to making the world a better place.
In that same interview, Dawson also shared some great insights into Claire’s popularity. “Everybody loves their Daredevil and Luke Cage,” she said, “but it’s really fun seeing people go, ‘Claire Temple is my favorite character, ’cause she’s a real person and she’s got real skills, and if it wasn’t for her, they’d all have been dead, a long time ago.'”
“I keep thinking my character should walk on set and just go, ‘You’re welcome!'” Dawson continued, “Every time they do something amazing, she should go, ‘And you’re welcome, ’cause you wouldn’t have done that, had I not fixed you.’ I think it’s really great. It’s grounding to remind people that we all have the opportunity and skills to be heroes or heroines in our real life, and it’s not just these heroes that have special powers that we get to fantasize about.”
The Punisher wrapped filming in April 2017, and should premiere on Netflix at some point this year.
(Via Collider; image via Marvel/Netflix)
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