The Punisher Teaming Up With Spidey Is Actually A Reteam For Jon Bernthal And Tom Holland

Tom Holland’s fourth outing as Spidey is the next of upcoming Marvel movies on the way and, as the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer showcases, this time he’ll mix it up with Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle a.k.a. The Punisher. This will mark the first time the two characters have crossed paths in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, what fans might not know is that Holland and Bernthal actually have a history!

Jon Bernthal recently took to his Instagram to share a vintage photo of himself with Tom Holland, and it speaks to the sweet relationship he has with the British actor. Check it out:

It's hard not to love this throwback. This is likely from a decade ago, when Holland and Bernthal worked together in a little-known Irish film, Pilgrimage, which was released in 2017. Jon Bernthal posted the photo with a sweet message where he called Holland a “one of a kind” who he is “so proud and in awe of the man” he has become. Bernthal said “I love you brother” before saying he’s “honored to be rolling with” him again.

A sum of people who saw this post may have had no idea these two have such a long history of working together, but that’s just because their previous film together wasn’t nearly as massive as a Marvel film. It's about monks in Medieval Ireland. Now that Bernthal has pointed out their shared history, fans may be even more excited to see Spider-Man and Punisher in the same movie this summer. Check out the Brand New Day trailer below:

Holland has been hyping up Spider-Man and Punisher in Brand New Day, too, saying the pair of Marvel characters together might be his “favorite dynamic” he’s seen with Spider-Man. (And yes, I’m also thinking ‘Wow, even better than Peter Parker with Tony Stark?’) The actor has described the on-screen relationship as a “big brother/little brother rivalry” which developed after the pair started improvising bits together that forwarded the dynamic that was originally on the page.

Brand New Day follows Peter Parker four years after the events of No Way Home left the world forgetting his name, including his best pals Zendaya and Jacob Batalon’s MJ and Ned. Holland has called the movie a “rebirth” for the beloved character he played across six films prior to this one.

Bernthal’s role as the Punisher has been going on for just as long, but his role in Brand New Day will mark the first time the character has popped up in a big-screen Marvel movie, and this comes after his recent appearance in Daredevil: Born Again. W

That's all exciting, but did I also mention that Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal are actually in two 2026 movie schedule entries together?! Both actors are also in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, too. Holland is reportedly playing Odysseus’s son Telemachus, while Bernthal is playing the Greek king of Sparta, Menelaus. (And Zendaya is in both movies, too!)

I, for one and pumped to see Holland and Bernthal share the screen this year. Also, as they do press, I hope their personal history comes up as well. First, check them out in The Odyssey, which hits it theaters on July 17, and then see them in Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31.