New Reports Reveal Roles of Punisher and Hulk in Upcoming ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’

It’s now official, Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk will be appearing alongside Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher in the upcoming Marvel/Sony movie Spider-Man: Brand New Day. This confirmation comes after months of rumors, which first started when an artist working on the film accidentally posted pins on ArtStation showing Hulk with Spider-Man in various poses.

Not much is known yet about the movie’s plot. However, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently hinted that this film will have a smaller, more grounded story compared to previous Spider-Man outings. “I think there’s a promise at the end of No Way Home, that for as sad as it is that Peter is forgotten by everyone in his life, we are seeing for the first time in the Tom Holland Spider-Man stories him being a proper Spider-Man,” Feige said. “Him being by himself, dedicated to saving the city, and dealing with — for lack of better terms — street-level crime, as opposed to world-ending events.”

Feige also explained why this kind of setting is the right time to bring in characters Spider-Man hasn’t met before in the MCU, including The Punisher. “So when you do that, you say, okay, who are the other street-level characters that we’ve never seen him interact with? And of course, I love that The Punisher started in a Spider-Man comic. That great cover… I don’t want to say too much, but Destin — I will say too much — Destin is doing an amazing job right now on that movie, which starts shooting very soon. And he’s got eight or nine comic covers up on his wall in his art department that he is bringing to life in this movie, which is super cool.”

That still leaves the question: how do Hulk and Punisher fit into a street-level Spider-Man story? According to The Hollywood Reporter, the answer is exactly what fans might expect. “The plot details are being kept under the vest, but you can bet that, in the mighty Marvel manner, Spider-Man, Punisher and Hulk will all fight one another before figuring out who the real bad guys are.”

This wouldn’t be the first time Marvel heroes have gone head-to-head before teaming up, and it sounds like Brand New Day will follow that same tradition. The return of Michael Mando as Scorpion, last seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming, also adds more fuel to the fire.

And it doesn’t stop there. Rumors and set leaks suggest that Mister Negative could be one of the main villains. Recently, set photos taken in Glasgow showed armored vehicles marked with a red demon logo. Reports compared these logos to the symbol used by the Inner Demons gang in the comics, a group led by Mister Negative. If true, this could mean Spider-Man will have to deal with more than one major threat.

With production underway and filming happening in Scotland and at Pinewood Studios in England, fans are eager to see how all these characters, from street-level vigilantes to gamma-powered heroes, will collide in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, set to release July 31, 2026.

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