Disney+’s presentation The Punisher: One Last Kill felt like bit of punishment for some fans.
The otherwise well-reviewed special has been impacted by an audio mixing issue, and a key stunt shot is being mocked for looking unfinished (though there’s more to the story…).
First, fans said the Disney+ presentation was hurt by audio mixing issues, particularly low dialogue volume. “I could not hear a damn thing audio-wise in The Punisher special,” wrote one. “The surround sound speakers are configured wrong,” wrote another. “The center channel is coming out of the rear and the levels are wonky as well.”
The streamer has acknowledged the issue, replying to several fans on X on Wednesday: “Thank you for reaching out and letting us know you’re experiencing no audio while watching The Punisher: One Last Kill. The good news is that our team knows about this particular issue and is working on a solution as we speak. Let us know if we can help with anything else!”
Well, actually, funny you should ask…
A VFX moment shows gun-packing vigilante Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) being pushed out of a building and falling on a silver crate. Except Bernthal doesn’t look quite like himself. Some fans said the actor instead resembled an early-PlayStation-era cutscene character who robotically flails his limbs upon impact. You can judge it yourself below.
Some of the comments: “It genuinely looks like a GTA cutscene” … “It looks like a test version of some Joel cutscene for [PlayStation’s] The Last of Us” … “Marvel ‘accidentally’ dropping unfinished VFX in 2026 is crazy — Jon Bernthal is out here doing God-tier Punisher rage but they hit him with PS3 ragdoll physics.”
But a source close to the production tells The Hollywood Reporter that this is a real in-camera shot. Bernthal performed the beginning of the fall, and his stuntman took over for the impact shot. There is some VFX, however, which might explain some of the wonkiness — the stuntman’s face was swapped for Bernthal’s.
As fans get more sophisticated about visual effects, and AI clips proliferate online, spotting VFX errors have become a bit of a online pastime (and, sometimes, a fake VFX shot turns out to be real after all).
Critics and fans have otherwise praised the special, with One Last Kill getting an 86 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 91 percent audience score. The special is now streaming on Disney+.
The Punisher: One Last Kill was released Tuesday as a special episode. One Last Kill continues The Punisher’s story following the 2017 The Punisher series and the character continuing in the first season of Daredevil: Born Again. The character will next appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
