On June 20, 2025, Deadline reported that Jon Bernthal has been roped in to star as the Punisher in the upcoming Marvel film Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The fourth installment in the Spider-Man franchise is scheduled to release on July 31, 2026.

Regarding the plot, Tom Holland shared a video message with fans at CinemaCon on March 31, 2025:

“I know we left you with a massive cliff hanger at the end of ‘No Way Home, so Spider Man: Brand New Day’ is a fresh start. It is exactly that. That’s all I can say.”

Spider-Man: Brand New Day will mark Jon Bernthal’s debut as the Punisher in a Marvel film. He previously portrayed the comic book character in several Marvel television shows.

Jon Bernthal will join the Spider-Man film franchise in 2026

In addition to Jon Bernthal, the film’s confirmed cast members include Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Jacob Batalon, who will reprise their roles as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, MJ, and Ned, respectively. Furthermore, Stranger Things actress Sadie Sink is also set to appear in an unspecified role, according to Deadline’s exclusive report from March 12, 2025.

The film is set to start production in London in the summer of 2025 and will reportedly pick up from the events of No Way Home, where Peter Parker’s identity is erased from the world.

The upcoming film will mark Tom Holland’s fourth appearance as the web-slinging superhero, following Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)—all directed by Jon Watts. However, this next installment will be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, who previously directed Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in 2021.

Jon Bernthal and Tom Holland previously shared the screen in the Irish medieval film Pilgrimage, released in 2017. Directed by Brendan Muldowney, the film also starred Richard Armitage, John Lynch, Stanley Weber, Hugh O’Conor, Eric Godon, Tristan McConnell, Rúaidhrí Conroy, and Eóin Geoghegan.

Additionally, Jon Bernthal revealed that he and Holland helped each other with their audition tapes for their career-defining roles as the Punisher and Spider-Man, respectively, while filming Pilgrimage. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live on April 18, 2025, he shared that he asked Holland to include a double backflip in his tape and joked that he deserves credit for Holland landing the role of the Marvel superhero.

“We did a film about seven or eight years ago. 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,” he said.

A look at Jon Bernthal’s other projects as the Punisher

Jon Bernthal has portrayed the vigilante Frank Castle / the Punisher in several television shows. He first took on the role in the second season of Daredevil on Netflix in 2016 and later reprised it in the revival series Daredevil: Born Again on Disney+ in 2025. He also starred in the Netflix series The Punisher for two seasons, from 2017 to 2019.

Furthermore, in February 2025, Marvel announced that it was developing a Disney+ special centered on Jon Bernthal as the beloved antihero. The 48-year-old actor also shares writing credit for the project with the film’s director and writer, Reinaldo Marcus Green. The special presentation is slated to release in 2026.

Stay tuned for more news and updates about Spider-Man: Brand New Day.