Netflix has added The Punisher to its long list of character-based Marvel shows joining Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, as well as the group show The Defenders. The Punisher, aka Frank Castle, who is a key character in the Daredevil series, is a bit of an anti-hero – a vigilante defending the murder of his family turned man-wronged by a shadowy CIA. Jon Bernthal, who played Shane on The Walking Dead, exhibits some Shane-esque characteristics here, conveying the tortured, unpredictable, two-sided Punisher.
There’s far less kung fu here in The Punisher, which may be a relief to those that really did not enjoy Iron First, and more traditional action storytelling with a hearty dose of violence. Bernthal doesn’t have any superpowers, like the main characters on the other Marvel shows on Netflix, but has plenty of rage. Also like the other shows, The Punisher is filmed in New York City giving us plenty to look for while taking in the show. Here are some filming locations so far:
1. 60-62 West Street, Greenpoint
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
The series opens with Castle wreaking havoc on the Mexican cartels and bike gangs at the end of his vigilante period. Since then, he’s been laying low working construction and demolition in Greenpoint, having grown a beard and going by Pete Castiglione. His coworkers make fun of him, telling a newbie that he’s “not all there.” The specific site is 60-62 West Street, a building that was a former rope factory in the Greenpoint Terminal Market. The building is being converted into a boutique hotel, with a design by architecture firm FXFOWLE that will weave “nautical and industrial history with contemporary comforts and playful elegance.”
In the show, you can see the views of the surroundings from the upper floors of the building, which include the Pencil Factory just nearby on Greenpoint Avenue, Hunters Point and Long Island City northwards, and the view of midtown Manhattan.
Castle keeps working into the night, having flashbacks to a carousel – one that figures in Daredevil as well.
2. Williamsburg Bridge
Castle walks the Williamsburg Bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan, heading to a support group for former military led by Curt, a friend of his. But in a later episode, we see that the exterior of the support group is a church building in Greenpoint. He stands just outside the door, not going in during the session but goes in afterwards.
3. Columbus Circle and Central Park West
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
Homeland Security agent Dinah Madani has drinks with her mother in her apartment on Central Park West, overlooking Columbus Circle and the Trump World Tower. Her mother warns her that the case she’s pursuing, which involves Castle, scares her. “I don’t want to see your head on a plate,” she says.
4. Cortlandt Alley
The guys at the construction site bring in Donny, the newbie, on a job to rob a poker game run by an Italian mob family. The poker game is taking place on Cortlandt Alley, in the basement Linello’s, a supposed Italian restaurant in Little Italy. Cortland Alley is one of the most popular film spots in New York City. It has appeared in Gotham, Mr. Robot and more. Donny makes a critical mistake, dropping his drivers license. The group flees and drives back to the construction site.
There, they decide that Donny must be dumped into the concrete pourer and made to disappear. Fortunately, Castle is there still demolishing the wall. He violently dispatches with the guys, smashing faces and private parts with a big hammer. Castle heads back to Cortlandt Alley and takes care of the mob guys before they can get to Donny. A requisite slo-mo shot of Castle walking down the alley comes after.
5. Goodfellas Diner
The Goodfellas Diner, also known as the Clinton Diner, has been popping up a lot as a filming location recently seen in shows like Homeland, Master of None, The Good Wife, and of course, the movie Goodfellas. The diner is located in Maspeth, Queens and in The Punisher, is given the name “Graniteville Diner.” Castle stops in for food but gets a call from his past.
6. Circle Line Boat and Statue of Liberty
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
In one of the flashbacks, we see Castle on a Circle Line Boat with his two kids, going by the Statue of Liberty. His daughter says she read at school that the Statue of Liberty “represents everything good about America. Is that why you have to go away and fight?” she asks. The son says that his father is going to kill “lots of Hajis” and Castle grabs his son and tells him he should never say that.
7. Manhattan Family Court, 60 Lafayette Street
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
The exterior of the Manhattan Family Court building at 60 Lafayette Street stands in as the office of Homeland Security, where Dinah works. It’s located between Franklin and Leonard streets. The building was constructed in 1975 and designed by Haines Lundberg Waehler.
According to the NYC DCAS website, the building houses not only Family Court but also the Department of Probation, Human Resources Administration, and Legal Aid. The website also reports that the building “was intended to look as if it is an incised cube that was carved away from a polished black granite monolith,” though in 2006, the facade was reclad in a renovation.
8. Frank Castle’s Apartment
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
Castle has been staying at what looks like an SRO (single room occupancy building). The exterior is located at 25-20 50th Avenue in Long Island City, just under the elevated Long Island Expressway near the edge of Newtown Creek. In real life, it is an industrial street with a metal fabrication company. Many shows, including the Netflix Marvel shows, have scenes in Long Island City due to the proximity of various film studios in the neighborhood.
9. Grand Ferry Park
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
Frank Castle finds reporter Karen Page, also a character on Daredevil, on the street, pretending to be a bum. They go to her apartment and he tells her he thinks someone is after her and offers her the name Micro. She agrees to help and he tells her to put flowers in the window when she has information.
Page gets some information from her boss Ellis, who years ago had dropped a story following pressure from Dinah’s boss, Carson Wolf. They meet in Grand Ferry Park in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a small park on the waterfront just next to the under construction Domino Sugar Factory development.
10. Pete’s Diner and Grill
Castle is a fan of diners, it seems. He ends up at Pete’s Diner and Grill and calls Micro/David Lieberman who is in his techy lair. Micro tracks Castle to the diner, which is a real spot in Sunnyside along side Queens Boulevard. It’s about five minutes from Castle’s supposed apartment. They arrange to meet at the Pulaski Bridge, the bridge between Greenpoint and Long Island City. From there, Castle takes him on a wild goose chase, giving him a new location at every point, including Greenpoint Terminal.
11. Mount Zion Cemetery
At Greenpoint Terminal, Castle has Curt looking out from atop the building (looks like the construction site Castle has not been to work at for several days now). Curt confirms that Micro is alone. Castle directs Micro to Mount Zion Cemetery, the Jewish Cemetery in Maspeth, Queens, and tells him he knows where to meet. That’s because Micro (aka David Lieberman) has a tombstone there. Curt shows up, saying that Frank is “in the wind.”
We finally see where Micro is hiding out, inside the Roosevelt Island Steam Plant. This spot is another recently popular film location as well, seen in Gotham and Luke Cage. On its way to possible demolition, the Roosevelt Island Steam Plant was the subject of a preservation campaign by a group that had hoped to turn the plant into a museum. See inside this steam plant in our prior article here.
The basement interior appears to be a set, though quite well done. You get a look at the interior of the actual steam plant in a later episode.
13. St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
The exterior film location of the military support group is St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church at 139-151 Milton Street in Greenpoint in the Greenpoint Historic District. According to the Historic Districts Council 6toCelebrate report, the church is in the
German neo-Gothic style of brick with terra-cotta ornament. It features a flying buttress at its western corner, lancet windows and a plaque above the central arched window carved with the church’s name in German…The Greenpoint Reformed Church was originally the Greek Revival home of Thomas C. Smith, owner of the Union Porcelain Works and a local architect/builder.
14. Brooklyn Navy Yard
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
Things get a little “Fast and Furious”-style in the fourth episode, with Castle and Micro wreaking havoc on Dinah’s operation to seize a delivery of guns. What follows is a souped-up-car chase between Dinah and Castle, with Castle pulling Dinah out of her car before it blows. The map shown in the meeting at the Homeland Security offices shows the location to be the Red Hook piers, but the actual film location is in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Later in episode six, when Billy meets up with Castle, they’re back at the Navy Yard, only in daytime.
Located between south Williamsburg and Dumbo, the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a former military facility that has been transformed into manufacturing space, film studios, and industrial spaces. Steiner Studios is one of the major tenants, which is why the navy yard appears in countless television shows set in New York.
15. Bronx County Courthouse
Lewis Walcott is a military army Vet, suffering from PTSD and in the support group run by Curt. After being kicked out of the Anvil recruiting program, he bonds with another support group member and they go canvassing in front of the Bronx County Courthouse in support of the Second Amendment. Later, Lewis learns from Curt that the guy he’s bonded with was never in Vietnam. Lewis confronts him and kills him.
Billy Russo meets Rawlins on the Queens side of Newtown Creek, which is on the border of Brooklyn. It is one of the most polluted waterways in New York City. It’s a popular film location due to the presence of Broadway Stages, a film studio in Greenpoint along the creek. In this shot, you can see the Pulaski Bridge which connects the two boroughs in the background, as well as the midtown Manhattan skyline.
17. Roosevelt Hotel
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
The hotel that Senator Stan Ori uses as his headquarters is the Roosevelt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan at 45 E. 45th Street off Madison Avenue. The showdown where Lewis Walcott bombs Senator Ori’s hotel room takes place here, with Frank Castle, Billy Russo, Karen Page and Agent Madani all converging here for different reasons.
18. Roosevelt Island
Photo: Jessica Miglio/Netflix
Marion James, Deputy Director of the CIA meets with William Rawlins on Roosevelt Island (conveniently for shooting at the same place Micro’s lair is). In the background of the scene, you can see the Queensboro Bridge and on the Manhattan side, the roller-coaster looking art installation by Alice Aycock. Rawlins lets James know that Frank Castle is a problem for the two of them, with information that could damage the CIA if it comes out due to Rawlins’ “unorthodox methods.”
19. Astoria Park Pool
Micro goes to find his daughter Leo, after his wife and son have been kidnapped by Russo’s men. She’s hiding out at the Astoria Park Pool, an Art Deco pool built by Robert Moses. The Olympic-sized pool is one of eleven WPA pools built during this era and has hosted Olympic trials for swimming and diving.
20. Roosevelt Island Steam Plant, Interior
Photo: Jessica Miglio/Netflix
Russo’s team has located where Castle is located and enter on the upper level of Russo’s lair at the Roosevelt Island Steam Plant. The scenes that follow depict a violent showdown between Castle and Russo’s team, but Castle is disappointed not to find Russo himself.
21. Tudor City Bridge
Rawlins and CIA Deputy Director Marion James meet again, and James is angry this time. They’re on the bridge in Tudor City, which crosses 42nd Street near the United Nations. This very bridge is one of the most popular spots to view Manhattanhenge, the twice a year phenomenon when the sun aligns with the street grid. Rawlins tells James of his plan but James tells him he’s crossed the line. In the end, she agrees to burn Billy Russo to save the two of them, but she tells him he’ll resign from the CIA.
22. Hunts Point, The Bronx
The hostage exchange takes place on the waterfront of Hunts Point, an industrial zone in The Bronx. Across the waterway in the scene, you can see images of the abandoned North Brother Island and Rikers Island, New York City’s largest jail facility. The industrial facility the shoot takes place at is not far from Barretto Point Park, where the floating pool docks.
23. Forest Park Carousel
Photo: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix
The Central Park Carousel scenes where Castle’s family is killed, and where Russo and Castle have their final gun battle are actually filmed at the Forest Park Carousel in Queens, a landmarked carousel. The figures were made between 1903 and 1910 by D. C. Muller & Brother, a firm noted for their “expressive anatomical detail and unusual attention to military fittings,” contends the landmark designation report. This is not the original carousel in Forest Park, of which little is known, but the current carousel built by D.C. Muller was relocated here from Lakeview Park, Massachusetts.
Michelle is the founder of Untapped New York and the author of The Art Spy (HarperOne, forthcoming) Secret Brooklyn, Secret New York Hidden Bars & Restaurants, and Broadway. michelleyoungwriter.com
