Why Jon Bernthal Probably Owes His The Bear Role To His The Punisher Co-Star Ebon Moss-Bachrach

Mike, Michael, Mikey, Jon Bernthal’s character is referred to in a lot of ways on The Bear, but he isn’t seen often. He kind of lives as a legend or a myth in the ensemble’s minds. So, having an A-lister like Bernthal come in to play Carmy’s older brother really did help hammer that idea home. It turns out that getting him onto the FX hit was in part thanks to Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Richie on the Chicago-set dramedy. After working with The Walking Dead alum during Season 1 of The Punisher, he explained how he helped get his Marvel colleague onto the hit series, and why he was such a good fit.

Back in 2017, when Marvel still had shows on Netflix, Jon Bernthal played the titular character in The Punisher, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach played Frank Castle’s ally and hacker David Liberman, also known as Micro. After working closely together during Season 1, the actors went their separate ways. As Moss-Bachrach was working on The Bear he was asked if he knew of any actors who’d be a good fit to play Carmy’s older brother who died and appears in flashbacks. While he didn’t think we should see Mikey at first, he came to the conclusion that his Marvel co-star would be a good fit for the role telling CinemaBlend:

They were trying to cast that role Michael for a while. And they asked us, ‘Does anyone have any ideas?’ And they asked me and I was like, ‘I don't think we should ever see him.’ Because when you talk about somebody, and hype them up so much, it's always a letdown. And then it did occur to me one day, and I was like, ‘Well, I do think Jon is such a, I don't know, like, charismatic and hilarious, dude that, I was like, ‘he actually would be really great.’

So, he took the idea to the showrunners, Christopher Storer and Joanna Calo, and they loved it. Although, he also said they may have already had Bernthal in mind as he told us:

And I brought it up to the showrunners. And they were like, ‘Oh, yeah, absolutely.’ They thought it was a good idea so quickly, that it made me think that maybe they had sort of been wanting [him,] because they kept asking me, ‘Is there anyone you know?’ And they knew that we were friends. I think maybe they were pushing me a little bit to do it. And then I called Jon. And Jon, to his credit, or to our relationship's credit, he was just like, ‘Yeah, great. I'd love to.’ We really enjoy working with each other. So, he was happy to come. Even without reading the script he was like, ‘Yeah, sure. I'll come I can do it. If we can make it work. We'll do it.’ It was really cool. It was awesome.

It’s amazing that Bernthal was so game to join the cast of The Bear so quickly. While he’s only in two episodes, Mikey’s presence is constant throughout the show, so when we finally see him it’s powerful. Having an actor like The Punisher star playing such a vital role makes it even better. Moss-Bachrach spoke to this idea too, saying:

He brings with him obviously, he's kind of like a movie star or whatever. So he does bring with him a little bit of that. You've seen him in past things, so he brings a kind of energy that you've seen him before. And I think that that helps with the sort of legend of and the mythos around him, you know? A little bit of like meta kind of casting or something.

Along with the show's lead Jeremy Allen White, who plays Mikey’s little brother Camry, Jon Bernthal was one of the bigger names among The Bear’s ensemble. As Moss-Bachrach said there is a sort of “mythos” around the Mikey actor, I mean just look at Bernthal’s movies and TV shows. Having that recognizable face on the show made me perk up when I saw him, feeling like I already knew the character well, which seems to be how the cast of characters felt about Mikey.

Jon Bernthal was such a fantastic casting choice, and I’m so happy Ebon Moss-Bachrach made the recommendation. Now, the question is will Mikey appear in a flashback in Season 2 of The Bear? 

Luckily, we won’t have to wait long to find out, because the show is set to premiere on the 2023 TV schedule Thursday, June 22. You’ll be able to stream it with a Hulu subscription, and the entire first season is available now. Also, to go back and see Bernthal and Moss-Bachrach on their hit Marvel show, you can stream The Punisher with a Disney+ subscription.