‘I wouldn’t tangle with his Punisher!’: Ben Affleck compares his Marvel experience with Jon Bernthal

Ben Affleck thinks Jon Bernthal’s Punisher is "good" - while his ‘Daredevil’ film was "an interesting story".

The 52-year-old actor portrayed ‘The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen’ in the eponymous 2003 superhero movie, while Bernthal, 48, has played The Punisher since Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ show in 2016, and has now Affleck has compared the differing experience working with Marvel Studios with that of his ‘The Accountant 2’ co-star’s.

In an interview with Jake’s Takes, Affleck said: "Well, his Punisher is good. ‘Daredevil’ was an interesting story.

"It was before Kevin Feige had stepped into the role of running Marvel. He imposed a kind of clarity of tone across those movies that sort of figured out the trickiest thing, which is, ‘How do you balance a movie where you got people wearing pyjamas and have superpowers, and how seriously you take it, and how much humor is in it, and how much you wink at the audience, and what does the action have to look like?'

"It coincided with visual effects getting to a place where it could look really convincing. It paved the way for great actors like him to really get it done."

The ‘Justice League’ actor added that while he hasn’t watched the new iteration of Daredevil in the Disney+ show ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ - which stars Charlie Cox in the titular role, and also sees Bernthal return as The Punisher - Affleck insisted he "certainly loves the character".

He continued: "There's a new ‘Daredevil’, I haven't seen it yet, but I certainly love the character, I wish him the best, but I wouldn't tangle with his Punisher."

‘Daredevil’ - which also starred Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell, Jon Favreau and Michael Clarke Duncan - follows blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Affleck) as he fights for justice by day and becomes the vigilante Daredevil by night, using his heightened senses to battle crime in New York City.

When a dangerous new enemy emerges and the woman he loves is caught in the crossfire, Daredevil must confront both his past and his purpose.

‘Daredevil’ was met with a mixed response by critics but performed solidly at the box office, making $179.2 million worldwide against a production budget of $76.6 million.

After ‘Daredevil’, Affleck took on the role of Batman in the DC Universe, and starred as the Caped Crusader from 2016’s ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ until ‘The Flash’ in 2023.

After hanging up the cowl, Affleck has now insisted he won’t be making any more appearances in superhero films as he has "lost interest" in the genre.

He explained to GQ magazine: "There are a number of reasons why that [playing Batman] was a really excruciating experience.

"And they don’t all have to do with the simple dynamic of, say, being in a superhero movie or whatever.

"I am not interested in going down that particular genre again, not because of that bad experience, but just: I’ve lost interest in what was of interest about it to me."

The ‘Good Will Hunting’ actor admitted he "certainly wouldn’t want to replicate an experience" like that of playing Batman in the DC Universe due to its "misalignment of agendas, understandings, expectations".

He added: "And also by the way, I wasn’t bringing anything particularly wonderful to that equation at the time, either. I had my own failings, significant failings, in that process and at that time."