The recently rumored release date for The Punisher - October 13, 2017 - would appear to be wrong. Following up the culmination of everything in the Marvel/Netflix enterprise so far with The Defenders, the next show from the TV studio and streaming service's deal will be a solo run of thirteen episodes for Frank Castle, showing his traumatic origin and the revenge mission that started it all.

While we know the series will premiere on Netflix at some point before the end of 2017, all involved have been incredibly coy about setting any specific date; the official trailer for the show even kept the day and month obscured. It was recently rumored that mystery date had been finally revealed by Total Film, whose feature on the show said all episodes would be available on October 13, just a few weeks from now. However, we've since heard that this isn't the case.

Related: Marvel’s The Punisher Season 1 Episode Titles Revealed

A source close to Screen Rant suggests The Punisher date isn’t the official one Netflix is shooting for. We have no further details regarding when exactly the show will premiere, but it seems we can rule out October 13.

The October 13 date made quite a lot of sense considering how Netflix has increased their marketing push recently, with the new trailer ahead of a panel and Episode 1 premiere at New York Comic Con in two weeks time. On a larger scale, it very much fits the typical Marvel approach, with most shows airing around eight weeks after their first teaser dropped; The Punisher's teaser accompanied The Defenders on August 18, exactly eight weeks before the rumored release.

That latter factor may actually explain all this confusion. October 13 was heavily speculated by fans because of the gap, with several publications citing it as likely. It's possible that Total Film took their information from one of these reports, misconstruing speculation for fact and leading to the widespread misreporting. This wouldn't be the first time a magazine has done this recently: back in June, Empire allegedly revealed Jon Snow's real name, only for it to emerge they lifted it from a reddit fan theory.

As for why Netflix hasn't officially debunked this rumor themselves, that seems part of an intentional marketing tactic to turn the mystery behind The Punisher's release date into a promotional point in itself. They've already sneakily green-lit the show off a string of episodes that served as a back-door pilot in Daredevil Season 2, and seem to want the down-and-dirty hero with a deleted past to have a character-fitting roll-out. It's definitely working so far given how much chatter it's getting.

While The Punisher's release date is still a mystery, with the marketing nevertheless ramping up ahead of NYCC it's sure to not stay that way for long.

Next: The Punisher Trailer Breakdown