After circulating the rumor mill for a few weeks, it was made official: Jon Bernthal's Frank Castle will join the still-in-progress cast of 2026's Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the fourth solo big-screen adventure for the Friendly Neighborhood Web-Head. Although the Punisher's confirmed inclusion promptly made fans sweat over how the gun-toting, unrepentantly savage vigilante would even exist in a cinematic Spider-Man story.
After all, Bernthal is known to be very choosy about the MCU projects for which he reprises Frank (the actor initially refused to do so for Daredevil: Born Again until the part was rewritten to his liking). Not to mention that while Spider-Man's previous MCU outings haven't been without a bit of collateral damage, nothing presented in those six films holds a single candle to anything Bernthal's Frank has ever touched. Peter refuses to take a life. To best sum up Frank Castle: He loves murdering criminals and is very good at it.
Often paired with the MCU's Punisher is New York City's second-most-violent extralegal crime fighter: Daredevil. Lawyer Matt Murdock's nightlife typically involves him strapping into a red devil suit and beating the tar out of drug traffickers and sexual assaulters.
And since Matt and Frank typically operate in the same circles (albeit with opposing motives), they have begrudgingly fought side by side on more than two occasions. Make no mistake; Daredevil and The Punisher are not a dynamic duo. They've arguably punched each other more than they've punched anyone else whilst working together.
Nonetheless, due in part to the fact that both of Daredevil's television series have featured several guest spots from Jon Bernthal, casual audiences usually associate one with the other. And even though Frank Castle is a part of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, this does not automatically mean Matt will tag along. But it would make a substantial degree of sense for other reasons. And most of them have to do with the leading Wall-Crawler.
Spidey and Ol' Hornhead have been teaming up in the comics since the '60s. In fact, Marvel just released a bespoke animated short retelling their first shared adventure (Maybe secretly intended to light a spark in the hearts of enthusiasts who yearn to see the iconic partnership in the MCU).
Frustratingly, Spider-Man has been present in the MCU since 2016, and in all that time, he's only shared a single scene with Daredevil. Only, it was a during legal meeting, both of them were in their civilian guises, and Peter had no idea that his attorney moonlighted as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Nonetheless, it did create a precedent for their interaction that viewers haven't forgotten about.
Complicating the matter is the fact that Daredevil was essentially cordoned off from Marvel Studios roles while Netflix still held a stake in the character. The Red Brand didn't have full live-action use of hero until 2020.
Following that, Charlie Cox was reenlisted, and Daredevil bounced around from project to project in cameo form until finally landing only a little ways from where he started, starring in another TV show: Daredevil: Born Again, which hit Disney+ in March.
Moreover, Marvel executive Brad Winderbaum has stated that Tom Holland's Spider-Man can't legally appear in a live-action MCU TV series because of restrictions imposed by Sony Pictures (via SuperHeroHype).
Marvel's only recourse is dropping coy Spider-References into the fabric of Born Again. It seems that the cinema is the only feasible venue for bringing Spider-Man and Daredevil together.
Even though Charlie Cox's name hasn't been written on Spider-Man: Brand New Day's callsheet (yet), the movie will showcase faces both familiar and unseen when it bows on July 31, 2026.
Beyond Jon Bernthal, Jacob Batalon and Zendaya will return as Peter's memory-erased best bud Ned and his equally amnesiac ex-girlfriend MJ (possibly in small doses). Also in Spidey's web for the film are Sadie Sink, known for her attention-grabbing performance in Stranger Things, and Emmy winner Liza Colón-Zayas, who plays Tina on the Hulu favorite, The Bear. Both actresses are locked down for yet-to-be-announced characters.
Could Charlie Cox's Daredevil Skip Spider-Man 4?
As many logical hopes that Daredevil could leap into Spider-Man: Brand New Day's action exist, there look to be just as many pieces of evidence that could seriously kill the buzz and wash this Spider-Team-up out.
Exhibit A: Recent photos (via update_mcu on Instagram) discreetly snapped on Daredevil: Born Again's outdoor set reveal Charlie Cox as Matt with his arm around Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page.
Notably, the smile on Matt's face implies that he's experiencing his least-frequent emotion: Genuine happiness. And as significant as that is, the reason why he's happy could be even more profound.
Those who tuned into Daredevil: Born Again's skull-shattering Season 1 finale witnessed Vincent D'onofrio's Wilson Fisk go complete megalomaniac.
Putting the greatest extent of his illegally-gained mayoral power into action, the Kingpin of Crime declared martial law for every citizen of New York City. His eyes, ears, and guns on the streets are the knuckleheads of Fisk's handpicked Anti-Vigilante Task Force; A squad of cops who were on thin ice with the NYPD and now skulk around Manhattan as his personal militia with authorization to shoot on sight.
Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk have been going at it for a while. Over a decade, in fact. And this martial law business seems like Matt's last straw. The story arc is reaching its natural denouement, and there's not a lot of narrative runway left for these two as adversaries.
Murdock likely closes out Born Again Season 2 by finally putting Fisk down, dead or alive, but permanently (worry not, there are plenty of great Daredevil tales that don't have anything to do with Fisk).
With his Kingpin concerns at long last behind him, it removes a considerable weight from Matt's shoulders. Perhaps after the events of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, The Man Without Fear becomes The Man with a Tan and jets off for a much-needed vacation.
If he's not even in New York, he won't be around to assist Spider-Man. At the very least, Wilson Fisk's ultimate defeat could convince Matt to hang up the billy clubs and maybe even rekindle his brief romance with Karen, lessening his drive to participate in superheroics.
Alternatively, Season 3 could have Matt skip that beach getaway in Aruba and travel further abroad to investigate Elektra (Elodie Yung) and The Hand. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in February, executive producer Sana Amanat teased that the Born Again writers' room was tossing around ideas regarding the reemergence of the most violent of Matt Murdock's many old flames.
If Daredevil is halfway across the globe investigating The Hand, it could serve as an effective in-universe excuse for his missing Brand New Day.
At this stage in the game, it's a shot in the dark. Outside of the people actually making the movie, nobody truly knows if Charlie Cox will be a factor in Spider-Man: Born Again.
But as far as die-hard moviegoing Marvelites are concerned, many of them have longed for Spider-Man and Daredevil to combine forces on-screen since the ink dried on Sony's 2015 deal with Marvel Studios to share Peter Parker's movie rights, or perhaps long before even that.
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