With a celebrated stint in Daredevil Season 2 preceding his also-celebrated standalone Punisher series, Jon Bernthal is a major player within Netflix's corner of the MCU. And it sounds like the actor wants to tap into the feature film side for the one Marvel character and star that he'd want to work with the most, as Bernthal named Spider-Man portrayer Tom Holland as his pick. According to Bernthal:
I'm in love with Tom Holland. There's one character, one actor, I have the utmost respect for, without question. He's equal parts great person as well as an actor. He's a sick athlete.
Tom Holland is possibly a surprising answer for MCU fans who might have thought Jon Bernthal would have picked a more grounded character for Frank Castle to work alongside, as opposed to everyone's favorite web-slinger. I mean, Frank obviously had his Daredevil arc that put him within a world of super-powered heroes that The Punisher's series did not, but his storyline there was tied specifically to more human elements like his family's murders and the court case, which kept him largely free from The Hand's plot. It would be truly bizarre to see Tom Holland's Spider-Man swinging between New York City skyscrapers with Frank hanging onto his back.
That said, it would also be totally amazing to see such a thing happen. Tom Holland's up-tempo youth as Peter Parker is on the opposite side of the comic hero spectrum from Jon Bernthal's weathered and emotionally fractured soldier. Micro wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs in Season 1, with his exile situation pretty fraught with emotional drama, but even he looked like a stand-up comic next to Frank. Just imagine how Peter's quips and wisecracks would land in the heat of a street fight. Probably a lot less effectively than the pair's punches and kicks would.
Jon Bernthal gushed about Tom Holland's talents during the ACE Comic-Con that recently took place in Glendale, Arizona (via AZCentral), where he and co-star Ebon Moss-Bachrach also shared some other interesting information about Season 1. For instance, Bernthal is apparently terrible at guitar, and his busy schedule kept him away from regularly working with the actual on-set guitar teacher. And as far as keeping the fans happy, Bernthal wants everyone to like the show, but he put a premium on not botching the story for any military members within Netflix's regular audience.
Since Marvel has basically stopped doing any kind of crossovers between its movie and TV universes, we likely won't get to see Spider-Man and The Punisher sharing the screen together in the near future. But maybe if both stars want to see it, and all the fans make waves about it, Marvel might figure out a way to reward us down the road, maybe post-Infinity War?
With Season 2 in the works, The Punisher Season 1 is currently available to stream on Netflix, while Spider-Man: Homecoming is out on Blu-ray, DVD and digital. Check out what Ebon Moss-Bachrach told us he wanted to change about Micro for the second season, and to see what other comic juggernauts are hitting the small screen soon, head to our 2018 Superhero TV schedule. Then swing over to our midseason premiere schedule to see when all the other new and returning shows will arrive.
