Jon Bernthal is having a year. His thriller series His & Hers became one of Netflix's most-watched English-language shows of all time. He played supporting roles in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey and the MCU's Spider-Man: Brand New Day, two films that grossed a combined total of more than $2.6 billion worldwide, according to Collider. Now fans are going back to find the project that made him a leading man: Marvel's The Punisher.
The series, which premiered on Netflix in 2017 and returned for a second season in 2019, is climbing digital streaming charts again. Bernthal broke out years earlier on AMC's The Walking Dead and built a resume of acclaimed supporting roles in films including The Accountant, Ford v Ferrari, and Baby Driver. But The Punisher remains his signature leading role, and audiences appear to be returning to it.
Earlier in 2026, Bernthal headlined Gary, a one-hour spin-off tied to FX's The Bear, which concluded its final fifth season this year. Gary holds a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. That project paved the way for a standalone spin-off in which Bernthal reprised his Punisher role.
Bernthal also currently stars in Prime Video's Sterling Point, the new mystery series that has taken the number one spot on Prime Video worldwide. His co-star on that show, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, is no stranger to late-career breakthroughs either.
Morgan, now 60, recently told host Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that his former manager dropped him because of his age, right before he landed the roles that changed his career. "I remember being in my mid-30s going, 'This didn't work out,'" Morgan recalled. "And my manager had just fired me right before I got the three shows. I'd been with her forever. And she was like, 'You've aged out, bro. You missed your window.' And she got rid of me and Max Martini at the same time and said the same thing to both of us."
The timing was brutal on the manager's end. Within a week of being dropped, Morgan booked three separate series. "I got Supernatural, Grey's Anatomy and Weeds all at the same time, like within a week of each other," he told Horowitz.
Before that breakthrough, Morgan described grinding through small parts and side jobs. "I'd do a pilot every now and again and [book] guest star spots and movies that people have never heard of that might take me to Comic-Con though," he said. He also recalled "always side hustling" to pay his bills. "I would build fences or whatever. It usually involved hammers. There was always something to build for somebody," he said.
Morgan played Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy from 2006 to 2008, John Winchester on Supernatural from 2005 to 2007, and Judah Botwin on Weeds in 2005. His career-defining role as Negan on The Walking Dead came in 2016. He has since appeared in The Good Wife, Watchmen, and The Losers, among others.
Both Morgan and Bernthal now find themselves at the center of one of Prime Video's biggest current hits, with Sterling Point holding the top streaming spot in 26 countries.
