Sources confirm that Jon Bernthal‘s Punisher is joining Sony and Marvel Studios’ Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The news comes just prior to the movie’s summer shoot in England under the direction of Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings‘ Destin Daniel Cretton.
Zendaya and Jacob Batalon are reportedly back as MJ and Peter Parker’s friend Ned opposite Tom Holland. Sadie Sink has joined thee cast. The movie takes place after the events of the previous installment, Spider-Man: No Way Home. You’ll remember, that the world’s memory was wiped clean regarding their knowledge that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.
Bernthal plays vigilante Frank Castle aka The Punisher, initially in the Marvel/Netflix series, and then recently in Disney’s Daredevil: Born Again. He’ll be starring in season 2 and he’s getting his own Disney+ special, which Bernthal is co-writing.
Bernthal has spoken publicly about how he and Spider-Man star Tom Holland helped each other land their life-changing Marvel roles. The two worked on the 2017 movie Pilgrimage.
“We did a film about seven or eight years ago,” he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “That was where both Tom did his audition for Spider-Man and I did my audition for Punisher. We actually made each other’s audition tapes on that film.”
Bernthal said that he “will take credit that in his audition tape … I gave him the note, ‘Tom, maybe you should run up that wall and do a double backflip and then start the scene.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, you think I should do that? That’s not too much?’ I was like, ‘I don’t think any of these other fools are able to do that,’ and he in fact did that. It’s not that I take responsibility for him, but you know, like a little something.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opens on July 31, 2026.
