When Does The Punisher: One Last Kill Take Place in the MCU Timeline?

Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle makes a violent comeback in the MCU, with the new Disney+ special, The Punisher: One Last Kill. The series almost reintroduces the character to Marvel fans before bringing him alongside Tom Holland in the upcoming movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day. While the TV special clearly sets up Bernthal’s character for the new Spider-Man movie, fans wondered where the events of this special fit into the larger MCU timeline.

The Punisher: One Last Kill (2026)	Details
Directed by	Reinaldo Marcus Green
Written by	Jon Bernthal and Reinaldo Marcus Green
Cast	Jon Bernthal, Deborah Ann Woll, Jason R. Moore, and Judith Light
Running Time	51 minutes
Network	Disney+
Release Date	May 12, 2026
RT Score (As of May 14, 2026)	82% | 90%
IMDb Score (As of May 14, 2026)	7.8/10

A simple answer would be after the events of Season 1 of the Disney+ show, Daredevil: Born Again. Frank Castle made a brief appearance in the show, and the last time we saw him, he had escaped Mayor Fisk’s prison for vigilantes. Now, we have insight from Dario Scardapane, who helmed Born Again and the original Punisher show, that the series takes place right before and during Born Again Season 2. Scardapane told Variety:

I don’t know a ton about what goes on in Brand New Day, and I know very well where we left him at the end of Punisher Season 2. I think this tells the story of what happened next after Punisher and before and during the events of [Born Again] Season 2.

There are some connections to the original series, like Frank’s past and his relationship with Karen Page. However, those two seasons of The Punisher are not essential watch to enjoy the new special. Despite Scardapane’s explanation, placing The Punisher: One Last Kill in the MCU chronological timeline is still a challenging task.

The Punisher: One Last Kill MCU Chronology Explained

Netflix’s The Punisher series makes it very difficult to place Frank Castle in the MCU timeline because of its continuity issues. While many events of the Netflix show were made canon, the timeline still gets a bit murky there. If the original show presumably followed the real-world timeline, it should have coincided with the events of Avengers: Infinity War.

However, it appears that the second season of Jon Bernthal‘s show was more in tandem with the third season of Netflix’s Daredevil. So, even though The Punisher Season 2 came out in late 2018, it takes place in 2017, around the same time as Charlie Cox’s third season run.

Frank Castle’s first appearance in the MCU was in Daredevil: Born Again Season 1. We see Matt Murdock in this season after the events of She-Hulk and Echo. Both these series canonically took place in 2025 in the Marvel timeline. These shows took place more than a year after people were snapped back to life in Avengers: Endgame, which canonically took place in 2023.

Now, we assume the prologue scene in Born Again, where Foggy dies, takes place in late 2025. The rest of the events of the series take place a year after that, likely late 2026. Mayor Fisk’s swearing-in happens at the beginning of 2027. So, Frank Castle’s appearance in this show probably came in 2027. It meant that the events of the new special, One Last Kill, take place in 2027.

Year in the MCU	The Punisher’s Timeline
2014	Daredevil Season 1
2015	Daredevil Season 2
2016	The Punisher Season 1
2017	Daredevil Season 3
2017	The Punisher Season 2
2024	Spider-Man: No Way Home
2025	She-Hulk & Echo
2026-2027	Daredevil: Born Again Season 1
2027	The Punisher: One Last Kill
2027	Daredevil: Born Again Season 2
2028	Spider-Man: Brand New Day

The timeline also fits Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which canonically takes place in 2028, four years after the events of No Way Home in 2024 in the MCU.

How Does It Set Up Punisher’s Brand New Day Appearance?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is being released on July 31, 2026, and it comes a long time after the last Spider-Man movie in 2021. The synopsis of the new movie establishes a four-year time gap between the events of the two movies. It means that Brand New Day is taking place in the year 2028, a year after the events of The Punisher: One Last Kill.

In the TV special, Frank Castle faces the wrath of the surviving matriarch of the Gnucci crime family, whom he previously eliminated. She sends every assassin and hired gun in Little Sicily to hunt down Frank. Before these events, Frank is in an existential crisis and even attempts suicide at his daughter’s grave. When the thugs come after him, he considers for a moment if this is a way for him to die. However, when he sees the thugs attacking his neighbors, he springs into action.

By the end of the special, he once again embraces his Punisher regalia and kills a man who killed a dog at the beginning of the series. This leads into the events of Brand New Day, where we see him in his Punisher armor, as seen in the trailer of the movie.

Do you think this timeline of the Punisher is accurate in the MCU? Let us know in the comments below!

The Punisher: One Last Kill is now available for streaming on Disney+.