The fictional character Frank Castle / Punisher, a comic book vigilante antihero created by Gerry Conway, John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru and featured in Marvel Comics publications, has appeared as a main character in multiple theatrical and straight-to-video films, many of them unrelated to each other. The first live-action film in 1989, was released theatrically worldwide then straight-to-video in the United States, starring Dolph Lundgren, while the second film was released in theaters in 2004, starring Thomas Jane. After an unsuccessful script of Punisher 2, the film series was then rebooted again in 2008 with the film Punisher: War Zone, starring Ray Stevenson.