Is The Punisher aiming for a big screen comeback?

Over the weekend at the Marvel movie panel, Kevin Feige, Marvel's president of production, took questions from the audience. One of those questions had to do with the cinematic future of one Frank Castle, also known as The Punisher. Here was Feige's response:

Feige: “Frank Castle is under the roof of Marvel Studios now and we hope to bring him into the fray shortly”

It's a classic non-answer. One used to stir interest without making a commitment. But could there be more to it? Feige gives the impression that The Punisher is back under the Marvel banner for the first time in years, but that's not the case. Lionsgate held the rights all the way up to the release of 2004's The Punisher film, starring Thomas Jane and John Travolta. That film was a box office success, earning over $50M, but didn't really establish the franchise in any way.

The right soon reverted back to Marvel, who released Punisher War Zone in 2008, which was a huge floperoonie, grossing only $11M. So Marvel has already tried once and failed with The Punisher back in the fold. It seems as if they're trying to make you forget about it. I liked PWZ, but I understand why they'd want to move on from it.

But what if Feige was being honest? It's unlikely that we'd see The Punisher show up in The Avengers, but Marvel's made a commitment to producing smaller budgeted films using its lower tier characters. The chances of seeing Frank Castle show up in a Power Man or Iron Fist movie is far more likely.