After the official Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer drop, some fans may be asking a fair question: why bring The Punisher into a Spider-Man movie at all? On the surface, the pairing feels almost contradictory.
Spider-Man is one of the most iconic superheroes ever created. He’s a wisecracking teenager who gained extraordinary abilities after a radioactive spider bite. He swings through the city, stops criminals, and leaves them neatly webbed up for the police, often with a cheeky note signed, “Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”
The Punisher operates by a completely different code. A former soldier turned relentless vigilante, he sees the justice system as broken, a revolving door that fails to keep criminals off the streets. His methods are brutal, relying on military-grade weapons, explosives, and lethal force. Where Spider-Man believes in justice, The Punisher believes in punishment.
However, it is this fundamental ideological clash that makes their dynamic so compelling.
Spider-Man sees The Punisher as a serial killer hiding behind a skull emblem. The Punisher, in contrast, holds a grudging respect for Spider-Man, viewing him as a rare example of a hero who refuses to cross the line. That tension between restraint and ruthlessness has fueled some of their most memorable encounters in Marvel Comics.
Their connection goes all the way back to The Punisher’s debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (1974), where he was introduced as an antagonist. Manipulated into believing Spider-Man was a murderer, Frank Castle set out to hunt him down. It’s a premise that Brand New Day may be drawing from.
While this will be the first time the two characters meet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the actors behind them, Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal, already share a history.
The two met in 2015 while filming Pilgrimage in Ireland. While there, they helped each other prepare audition tapes for their then-upcoming Marvel roles.
“We were in a tiny town on the west coast of Ireland,” Bernthal recalled on a IMDB TikTok. “He read with me for Punisher, and I read with him for Spider-Man. And we both got cast.”
Bernthal has even joked that he helped shape Holland’s audition. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he recalled encouraging Holland to take a bold risk.
“I told him, ‘Why don’t you run up that wall and do a double backflip into the scene?’” Bernthal said. “He was like, ‘Is that too much?’ And I said, ‘I don’t think any of these other guys can do that.’”
Holland ended up doing the stunt, and the rest is history.
Beyond the humor, Bernthal has often praised Holland’s work ethic and belief in himself. “He had such focus,” he said. “He would say, ‘I’m Spider-Man.’ He really believed it.”
Holland has echoed that supportive dynamic. While training together during auditions, Bernthal pushed him to keep going.
“Every time I couldn’t lift the weight,” Holland said, “Jon would say, ‘You’re gonna be Spider-Man.’ And I started saying it too.”
While Spider-Man and The Punisher won’t share the same kind of relationship Peter had with Tony Stark, portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., their dynamic may be even more compelling. Where Iron Man served as a mentor and guiding figure, The Punisher represents a direct challenge to Spider-Man’s beliefs. In fact, Tom Holland has suggested that this new dynamic could end up being his favorite one he’s explored on screen so far.
“I think one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about my tenure as Spider-Man is sharing the screen with Robert Downey, Jr., and really building that Spider-Man/Iron Man relationship,” Holland said in an interview at the Empire State Building celebrating the trailer.
“But I am so excited for people to see Jon Bernthal as the Punisher in this movie. He’s come from a very different world, you know, the R-rated kind of universe, and we’ve basically picked him up and plonked him into our world. And he absolutely sings in this movie. He is incredible.”
“The relationship between Spider-Man and the Punisher is so funny,” Holland added. “And it changed a lot, it evolved a lot as we were shooting, because Jon and I would improvise. It started as this relationship of two people who kind of hate each other, I guess, and as we started improvising, it became this kind of big brother/little brother rivalry. It might be my favorite dynamic I’ve ever seen with Spider-Man.”
That off-screen camaraderie adds an extra layer of intrigue to their upcoming meeting in Brand New Day. But while Holland and Bernthal built each other up on their way into the MCU, their characters are unlikely to share that same bond.
If the comics are any indication, Spider-Man and The Punisher won’t be trading encouragement or friendly advice. They will be clashing over something much deeper: what it truly means to be a hero.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Michael Mando, Mark Ruffalo, Jacob Batalon and Jon Bernthal, arrives in theaters on July 31.
