Born Again Features An Actor From The Punisher In Another Minor Role

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a massive undertaking for a number of reasons, and shows like Daredevil: Born Again struggle with a lot of challenges. Over the decades, they’ve found a role for just about every performer in the business, but each one with a name stays somewhat stuck to that identity. They’ve gradually become more comfortable recasting returning actors, but the Netflix shows represent an easy reservoir. Technically, most of those characters don’t exist, so they can reuse them all they want. One great example is actor Andrew Polk, who appeared in Daredevil: Born Again and The Punisher in separate roles.

It will probably be a prolonged and awkward process figuring out exactly which aspects of the Netflix shows exist within the mainline Marvel Cinematic Universe canon. They brought Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk back, but figuring out where Luke Cage and Jessica Jones belong will likely take quite a few focus groups. For whatever reason, fans haven’t made as much of a stink about their abandonment. Perhaps the return to Hell’s Kitchen might stoke some desire to see the rest of the Defenders make their return.

Who is Andrew Polk?

Andrew Polk is one of those character actors who viewers might not be able to immediately name, but they can always remember his face. He pops up in a ton of film and TV projects between the late 80s and the current day. He made his on-screen debut when he was 25 in an episode of One Life to Live. Since then, he’s appeared in a wide variety of roles, most of which remain relatively short-lived. He plays lawyers and doctors and military men and judges across dozens of TV shows, many of which offer him only a few lines. His most prominent and memorable performance may have come in his 10-episode tenure on Netflix’s House of Cards. He portrayed Harry Marshall, the campaign manager under Joel Kinnaman’s Will Conway, one of Frank Underwood’s most prominent political opponents in the fourth and fifth seasons. On the big screen, Polk appeared alongside big names like Anne Hathaway and Anthony Hopkins in James Gray’s Armageddon Time. Polk is a talented performer across screen and stage, and he even won a shared Emmy as part of the cast of “The Band’s Visit” on Today. Oddly enough for a character actor, he’s also in the Marvel Cinematic Universe twice.

Who does Andrew Polk play in Daredevil: Born Again?

Much of the early episodes of Daredevil: Born Again follow Matt Murdock, the man who once wore the eponymous mantle, working as a lawyer to defend another masked vigilante. His client, Hector Ayala, wields an enchanted amulet to grant himself superhuman strength as he fights crime. Matt Murdock dukes it out with the prosecutor over Hector’s fate, but his real enemy is the overwhelming weight of systemic oppression as New York’s finest bend over backwards to convict this innocent man. The honorable Judge Cooper presides over these events, mostly sitting silently in his seat and reacting to the big twists. Anyone who has watched a legal drama at any point will know that the judge rarely has a place of prominence in the back and forth. It’s a duel of wits between a noble defender and a sinister prosecutor with the help of several dirty cops and a solemn innocent whose life hangs in the balance.

Alan Polk portrays the judge, who really only gets a couple of solid scenes. One of the big issues of Ayala’s trial is his nightlife as a vigilante. Murdock initially argues that those details are immaterial and should subsequently be absent from the prosecution. When his star witness turns against him to avoid police violence, he resorts to pulling out Ayala’s hero suit and singing his praises to the jury. Polk gets to chew Murdock out for his hypocrisy. He then watches from the bench as Murdock’s scheme works, making him something of a pawn for the narrative to play with.

Who did Andrew Polk play in The Punisher?

Much like his character in Daredevil: Born Again, Polk’s Punisher character is both a man in power and a pawn. Colonel Morty Bennett is one of three high-ranking members of the United States Military who orchestrate a secret criminal scheme to fund interrogations and assassinations by trafficking heroin into the US via Afghanistan. This operation stays hidden from even the Special Forces soldiers who do most of the actual work involved, including Frank Castle and Billy Russo. Years later, Bennett and his cohorts would arrange the ill-fated hit that killed Frank Castle’s family, prompting his years-long quest for vengeance.

Bennett is, in many ways, the least of his powerful peers. Castle finds him running Fort Byron, where he spends most of his time whining about his underlings and entertaining his mistress. William Rawlins, one of Bennett’s co-conspirators, wields Bennett as bait to draw Castle. The trap almost works, getting Castle into a bind that he has to suffer a few major wounds to escape. Bennett takes a beating and a massive embarrassment, but the ambush allows him to avoid giving up any information. Rawlins and Russo, his hired help, explain their subterfuge to Bennett, leaving him enraged. They go on to explain that he’s only alive thanks to their intervention. Unfortunately, Bennett is unable to stop insulting Russo, leading the soldier to slit his throat while they’re hiding out in a hotel. Bennett’s life is short and full of humiliation, a fate befitting him and his cohorts.

Andrew Polk is far from the biggest part of either The Punisher or Daredevil: Born Again, but these small roles do have considerable impact. The inclusion of one minor actor hardly decanonizes the previous shows. It’s far more likely Marvel expected viewers to forget Polk had appeared in the previous role. As any fan of character actors can attest, their faces are very hard to forget.

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