Putting Jon Bernthal’s Punisher into the Tom Holland-led Spider-Man: Brand New Day always sounded both exciting and mildly terrifying. Frank Castle is not exactly the kind of guy who usually plays well inside the brightly lit moral framework of a friendly upcoming superhero movie. Frank's more “broken bones in an alley” than “quippy web swing past the deli.” That is why Holland’s latest comments on Spider-Man: Brand New Day have me feeling better about the whole thing.
While speaking with Empire Magazine for its July 2026 cover story, Holland addressed concerns about bringing an R-rated character into Peter Parker’s world, and it sounds like the movie is not sanding Frank down into a Disney-safe action figure. According to Holland: