Jon Bernthal's Punisher hits the big screen in Brand New Day

On 29 July 2026, the day of the French release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, one name keeps coming up insistently in the critics' copy, and it isn't a villain's. Jon Bernthal, back in the skin of Frank Castle, stands out as one of the most discussed elements of the first press reactions. Three questions remain: where this Punisher comes from, what the critics say about his role, and what his presence changes in the tone of the main character. The figures quoted here are timestamped to 29 July 2026 and continue to evolve.

Where this Frank Castle comes from: a character built outside the cinema

What makes this Punisher unusual is his production history. Unlike almost every partner Peter Parker has crossed paths with so far, Frank Castle wasn't introduced in a film: the character as Jon Bernthal plays him was built across television series, in a harsher register than that of costumed blockbusters. If this film is your first encounter with him, our feature on the origins of Frank Castle, his lethal methods and his skull symbol takes him back to the source.

The Netflix series, the character's historical foundation

For the full context, the specialist press points first to the Netflix productions. According to the viewing guides published around the release by NME, ScreenRant and Gameblog, two blocks matter: the three seasons of Daredevil broadcast between 2015 and 2018, which feature both Frank Castle and the ninja assassin organisation The Hand, then the two seasons of The Punisher, between 2017 and 2019. Gameblog and ScreenRant rate this second block as all but essential rather than optional, precisely because Bernthal has a leading role in the film, whereas Daredevil is a bonus for completists.

This lineage explains much of the effect on screen: a character honed over dozens of hours of television arrives with a density no twenty-minute introduction could manufacture. It also explains why the film sits in what English-language critics call the 'street-level' register: urban crime, score-settling, stakes at human scale. That closeness is nothing new, as shown by the turbulent history linking Spider-Man and the Punisher, from confrontation to unstable partnership and in the underrated alliance between Spider-Man and Daredevil.

Daredevil: Born Again season 2, then a special of his own

The most recent link is the most direct. Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again, broadcast from 24 March to 5 May 2026 on Disney+, is set roughly six months after the first and, according to the placement adopted by the specialist media, just before the events of Brand New Day. Marvel has never specified the exact gap, but Brad Winderbaum, head of streaming and television at Marvel Studios, told Entertainment Weekly that his teams talk a great deal with the film's team to guarantee consistency. Two characters bridge the two: Frank Castle, and Sheila Rivera, played by Zabryna Guevara.

There is a third anchor: Bernthal has also carried the character in a special of his own, The Punisher: One Last Kill. The guides published around the release converge on the same street-level perimeter, built around the block of Daredevil, The Punisher, Daredevil: Born Again and One Last Kill. The Frank Castle of Brand New Day is therefore not a version restarted from scratch: he is the culmination of a continuity maintained across several formats, whose benefit the film collects without re-explaining a thing.

A first on the big screen in the MCU

The most notable fact is easy to miss because it seems so obvious: this is the character's first big-screen appearance in the MCU. Bernthal takes the role back alongside Tom Holland, and an openly lethal vigilante thus joins a franchise whose previous partners included nothing of the kind: an editorial decision, not a casting detail, in the same way as the Fresh Start suit unveiled for this new era. Our guide to the Spider-Man films in order and our complete list of MCU films map it all out.

What the critics say about the Punisher in Brand New Day

On this point the press file is unusually easy to read: Bernthal is among the elements most often cited by the first reviews, and it is above all the dynamic set up with Peter Parker that wins unanimous praise — not an isolated verdict, but a convergence between writers who disagree on almost everything else.

'Bernthal might be the cast highlight'

The phrase comes from Liz Shannon Miller, who graded the film B+ for Consequence: Bernthal might well be the high point of the cast. She adds that it is a pure joy to watch Frank and Peter yell at each other — a way of saying that the film mines the friction rather than smoothing it over. At TheWrap, William Bibbiani describes Bernthal as a perfect foil for Tom Holland and calls their double act a comedy gold mine; the phrase covers the pairing as a whole, not the Punisher alone, and the nuance matters.

The observation goes beyond those two voices. Charlie Ridgely, who scores the film 8 out of 10 for Collider, writes that the biggest improvement is Bernthal's Punisher, praises the impeccable chemistry between the two actors and describes him as a genuine scene-stealer. In Empire, John Nugent paints a Frank Castle who is Peter's occasional frenemy, and whose bruising exchanges bring a very New York energy.

The double act, not the vigilante alone

These reactions don't quite say what a hurried reader might make them say. What the critics celebrate is not a solo show of force, but a balance of power: two irreconcilable methods, a moral friction sustained rather than resolved. The film doesn't manufacture a tight-knit team, it puts two temperaments on a collision course and films the sparks.

That collision overlaps with an old tension in the hero, the one explored in our moral analysis of the sacrifice made in No Way Home. A character defined by his restraint facing a vigilante defined by the absence of it: the material has existed since the comics, and the film seizes on it. Our page on Peter Parker and the real face of Spider-Man picks the thread up from the beginning.

A consensus that holds even among the more reserved critics

The strongest signal comes from the sceptics, and the reception is far from unanimous. David Ehrlich, in IndieWire, gives the film only a C-, describes it as a drab and gloomy Marvel sequel, and finds the antagonist's backstory predictable. Owen Gleiberman, in Variety, judges it half an hour too long — it runs 2 hours 25, or 145 minutes — a criticism shared by several colleagues who speak of a bloated narrative. Bibbiani, enthusiastic though he is, slips in that the villain's plan doesn't hold up: an isolated remark, not a consensus.

Other reservations come up more often. Edward Douglas, of the Weekend Warrior, quoted by Rotten Tomatoes, reckons the scenes bringing together Holland, Zendaya and Batalon are the best in the film, even if those three are together far less often than in any previous instalment. Rolling Stone, in David Fear's words, sees it as a set-up designed to prepare future crossovers. Empire questions the sudden arrival of another Marvel hero, who according to Nugent smashes through buildings and narrative rhythm alike. None of these reservations is aimed at Bernthal.

What his presence changes for Spider-Man's tone

This is the most measurable part. Frank Castle's arrival is not cosmetic: it belongs to a set of decisions that make this the harshest Spider-Man of the Tom Holland era, alongside the abandonment of the multiverse and the hero's isolation.

The multiverse put away, the street back at the centre

The word that comes up most among English-language critics is 'grounded': Rotten Tomatoes headlined its round-up of the first reviews on the idea of a Spider-Man story more grounded and more adult than any before it. The film sets aside the multiverse plot that structured No Way Home in favour of a story rooted in New York street crime. Kevin Feige has described a real Spider-Man facing threats at human scale, and the New York Post notes that there is more power in protecting your city than in saving the universe.

David Rooney, chief film critic of the Hollywood Reporter, welcomes a film with the good sense to stop harping on about the multiverse and foregrounds the humanity that has always been the character's greatest strength, with an extra dose of anguish. To measure the distance travelled, read again what No Way Home changed for the Spider-Man universe and how the multiverse arrived in the MCU: the contrast with the sunny tone of Homecoming and the post-Endgame Spider-Man of Far From Home is striking.

A Peter Parker alone, four years after the spell

The second factor is the narrative starting point. Brand New Day is set four years after No Way Home, its opening scene being placed nine months after the previous film's finale. The forgetting spell cast by Doctor Strange, which erases Peter Parker from the memory of the entire world, is its direct starting point. Director Destin Daniel Cretton describes a Peter who is completely alone, and the press speaks of a psychological distress that spills over into his powers. At Den of Geek, Tom Holland presented the long gap between the two films as a deliberate choice, meant to let the characters grow off camera.

This Peter is no longer the same interlocutor for Frank Castle. A hero surrounded by others would have sent the vigilante back to his own fringes; an isolated hero, hardened and bruised by grief and solitude — the phrase is Empire's, describing a Peter less puppyish than before — becomes a far more dangerous sounding board for the arguments of a man who has given up all restraint. On what remains of the memories, we dug into the question of whether MJ remembers Peter Parker, and the great reset from which the film borrows its comics title sheds light on the editorial origin of this blank page.

The hardening, measured by the official ratings

There is a non-subjective way to verify this hardening: the classification advice. In the UK, the BBFC rated the film 12A on 28 July 2026, with four descriptors — moderate violence, threat, injury detail, implied strong language. That mention of injury detail appears on no other MCU Spider-Man: No Way Home carried only moderate violence and threat, without the slightest mention of blood, while Homecoming and Far From Home referred to fantasy violence. The BBFC describes frequent scenes of violence — punches, blows to the head, bladed weapons, firearms and explosions — and notes bloodied characters, including a close-up of a bloodied face.

In the United States, the Motion Picture Association rates the film PG-13 for sequences of action and violence, and some crude language. Common Sense Media recommends it from age 11 and places the violence at the highest level of its scale: bloody injuries, firearms and bladed weapons, explosions and a torture scene. In France, by contrast, the film is rated Tous publics, with no legal restriction, under exhibition visa number 167934 issued by the CNC on 6 July 2026 with no warning: parents wanting a precise idea of the level of violence will therefore do well to consult the BBFC listing or the Common Sense Media one.

One last element, flagged without giving too much away: according to the content advisories published at release by Movieguide and Plugged In, the main antagonist takes mental control of people by passing from one body to another and turns civilians against Spider-Man. To identify the opponents without spoiling the plot, see our overview of the villains of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, rounded out by our features on Michael Mando taking back Scorpion, on Tarantula and his poisoned spurs and on The Hand, the clan of red ninjas. Our complete guide to Spider-Man's enemies places all of them in the web-slinger's historic rogues' gallery.

What not to expect from this crossover

Expectations ran away with themselves as soon as the trailers landed, hence this clarification: Frank Castle's presence does not mean the film summons the whole of Marvel's New York neighbourhood. Charlie Cox denied taking part as early as October 2025, so don't expect to see Daredevil. What carries over from the series to the film is the context left by Daredevil: Born Again, not the character. Not a team-up episode, then, but a two-hander in a story whose centre of gravity remains Peter Parker. Anyone hoping for more will find plenty to chew on in our breakdown of the post-credits scene and the film's ending, to be saved for those who accept spoilers.

Should you catch up on the series before the screening?

If you only rewatch one film before Brand New Day, make it No Way Home, whose forgetting spell is the direct starting point. Most guides recommend adding the rest of the Tom Holland trilogy, or even Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, with some outlets widening the list to Daredevil: Born Again and the Punisher series. On Born Again specifically, opinions differ: ScreenRant and The Mary Sue see it as complementary viewing rather than a prerequisite, while other outlets consider it necessary. One practical argument recurs among the same outlets: better to watch season 2 before the film, since the film takes for granted events on which the series closes. Our guide to being ready before the screening sets out the preparation, and the Spider-Man DVD and film collection lets you catch up on the earlier instalments.

The film's reception as of 29 July 2026

A few figures, timestamped to the day of the French release. As of 29 July 2026, Spider-Man: Brand New Day shows a 91% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes and Certified Fresh status, based on 163 reviews at that reading: a live counter, since the platform was still showing 90% on 135 reviews the day before. Metacritic gives it, on the same date, a Metascore of 70 out of 100, in the generally favourable band, from 42 press reviews: 32 positive, 10 mixed, none negative. In France, AlloCiné shows on the same day a press rating of 3.2 out of 5 across 17 listed outlets and an audience rating of 4.2 out of 5 from 268 ratings, on a still-small sample.

Peter Bradshaw, in The Guardian, awards 3 stars out of 5: a film carried by Zendaya, but too familiar in his eyes, and one that calls for a more radical reboot. On Tom Holland, the agreement is stronger still than on the Punisher: David Rooney sums it up as 'never better', and even Ehrlich grants him the most nuanced and most mature performance in the role to date.

The Punisher, centrepiece of a deliberate turn

What to take away comes down to one simple idea. Jon Bernthal wasn't brought in to add a name to the poster, but to make visible on screen a change of course carried out on every other front: the multiverse dropped, a return to street crime, an isolated hero, hardened classification descriptors. A lethal vigilante in a franchise that had none is the clearest way of signalling that the rules have changed — and the critics responded by making the Bernthal-Holland pairing one of the most frequently cited strengths. What becomes of that relationship next remains an open question.

In the meantime, there is plenty to extend the screening with. The collection devoted to Brand New Day merchandise brings together everything tied directly to the film, the Spider-Man figures cover every version of the character, the Spider-Man masks and the Spider-Man t-shirts answer the two most common uses, while the Spider-Man posters and the Spider-Man fancy dress and costumes are for walls and dressing-up screenings. For gifting, the Spider-Man gift selection and our Brand New Day buying guide by budget and by profile do the sorting.

For further reading: our breakdown of the final trailer, the soundtrack by Michael Giacchino, the release date and official cast, the pre-sale records and Tom Holland's injury on set. Our practical guides are gathered on the guides and advice page.