My Excitement About Jon Bernthal’s Punisher Joining Spider-Man Was Quickly Replaced With Concerns, And Not Just About R-Rated Violence

One of the MCU’s biggest draws right now, at least for me, is the expansion of Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle, which has easily become the best live-action Punisher to date. Seeing him in Daredevil: Born Again was a howl-worthy delight, and I couldn’t be happier that Bernthal is getting his own Marvel Special Presentation offshoot to follow up on the Born Again finale’s post-credit scene. I was also pumped to hear the huge news that The Punisher is joining Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

However, it wasn’t very long before those initially jubilant feelings started to taper off, with slightly confused curiosity filling out my headspace in their place. Is this actually the best use of Frank Castle on the big screen? How are we getting a Punisher and Spidey team-up without ever seeing Tom Holland’s webslinger battling Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin?

I could keep asking speculative questions like that all day, but will instead focus on my two biggest concerns about this particular crossover. Though a huge amount of fandom conversations have centered on Marvel potentially watering down Frank Castle's R-rated language and hyper-violent behavior for its family-friendly Spider-Man sequel, that's not the biggest source of my perturbation.

The Punisher Needs Street-Level Storytelling, Not Multiversal Chaos

When it comes to origin stories, it doesn't get more compact and hard-boiled than Frank Castle's avenging the deaths of his family, thus kicking off his second life arc as a fearless vigilante. And while the character certainly has a long comic book history that's put him in nearly every kind of conceivable form of large-scale conflict, Jon Bernthal's live-action iteration has exclusively remained tethered to the "real world," as it were.

With his military background and a lack of patience for bullshittery, Frank is most in his element while haunting the shadowy streets of New York City. He's a whiz with any weapon put in his hands, but even when unarmed, his hands become weaponized themselves. As such, he ranks as highly as Daredevil in terms of wowing audiences with shockingly brutal close-up fights.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man movies are not known for feature scenes on shadowy streets, and Peter Parker does not have a penchant for punching enemies' kneecaps out of the backs of their legs. They're more about coming-of-age emotions mixed with heightened science-fiction plotting, culminating in Tom Holland's multiversal team-up with Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire's Peter Parkers in No Way Home. Not exactly the kind of tale The Punisher would thrive in.

Sure, we don't really know what Brand New Day will be about, and it could very well make a complete about-face from the previous film's expansive lore to hone in on a grittier and smaller-scale narrative. But has Marvel ever gone smaller over bigger with follow-up projects? Very rarely, and I can't imagine it'll go that route with a character as beloved and box office-friendly as Spider-Man.

I Am Not Here For Jon Bernthal's Frank Being Quippy With Peter Parker

If Marvel's Punisher was tag-teaming with Spider-Man for a five-minute adventure, that would be the proper scenario in which I would be fine watching Jon Bernthal's vengeful soldier waxing comedic opposite the quip-master Peter Parker. That's about all I could take before questioning why Frank would still be hanging around without putting Spider in his rear-view.

So I'm definitely concerned about the possibility of Frank having to endure far more on-screen time serving as a listening board for Peter's self-aware humor. I mean, if it leads to Spider-Man and Punisher facing off after Frank gets overly annoyed, I'm into it.

Essentially, though, I just dont' want Jon Bernthal's hardcore hero to get thrown into a less brutal setting just for the sake of the MCU giving him a "fish out of water" story. When it comes to unfamiliar environments, I'd rather see Frank taking on space aliens or taking part in a bonkers fighting tournament, as opposed to anything that hinges heavily on Marvel-branded humor. Just because Bernthal was a hoot in The Accountant 2 (our review), that doesn't mean Frank Castle will be willing to put up with Peter's ding-dong jokes.

All that said, would I want to see Jacob Batalon's Ned Leeds bouncing from Spider-Man movies to being Frank's sidekick in a new Punisher show? Hell yes, I would. Other characters are always free to join Frank's world, even if I'm less open to him visiting others'. But it's not gonna keep me out of the theater seats when the movie comes out.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently set to film following Avengers: Doomsday, with a release date already set on the 2026 movie schedule for July 31, 2026.