As per a new rumor, Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner / The Hulk and Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle / The Punisher could be in Spider-Man 4. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will team up with the Punisher to fight a Hulk far more savage than the recent iteration of the character in the MCU.
Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher to fight the Hulk in Spider-Man 4
Scooper Jeff Sneider discussed rumors about the Hulk’s potential appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day with John Rocha on The Hot Mic podcast. Rocha then stated they had spoken about it and the Punisher’s inclusion in an episode on his podcast back in January.
In the older episode, Rocha cited a “very connected” source in the business to claim that the plans for Spider-Man 4 involved Peter fighting the Hulk with the Punisher. Rocha added, “So it’s gonna be ground-based. But he’s going to fight Hulk because Marvel wants to move away from the intelligent Hulk that we saw in the Avengers movies and make him much more of the brutish Hulk, the violent Hulk, the rage Hulk.”
Rocha proceeded to claim that Marvel wanted to bring back the angrier version of the Hulk because “a lot of people have been complaining” about the more intelligent and calmer version of the character.
Further, he admitted that he didn’t know if that had changed, adding, “I don’t know if that’s what Tom Holland was reading and jumping around with Zendaya in his room… because we know it’s going back into rewrites.. but that was the plan they told me about a couple of weeks ago.”
If those rewrites have happened, the Punisher might no longer be part of the movie, especially after his appearance in Daredevil: Born Again. The character will also appear in a special presentation in 2026. However, it’s equally possible that he is still included in the narrative of Spider-Man 4.
