With Spider-Man: Brand New Day aiming to bring the titular hero back to his street-level roots, it only makes sense for the friendly neighborhood web head to cross paths with the Punisher, one of Marvel’s most famous street-level vigilantes. The pairing has the potential to be wildly entertaining because of how diametrically opposed these characters are. Frank Castle is known for his unique brand of ruthless, merciless justice, while Spider-Man has always been more of a family friendly superhero who tries to keep casualties down to a minimum. This raises questions of how Punisher will be translated to a PG-13 sandbox, but Tom Holland is excited about it, and he wants Spider-Man to make the jump to the R-rated realm.
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Speaking with Empire as part of the outlet’s Brand New Day preview coverage, Holland addressed the possibility of appearing in an R-rated Punisher project. “I would love to pop up in one of [Punisher’s] shows,” he said. “Let’s see what an R-rated version of Spider-Man looks like. I’m so grateful for Jon [Bernthal] for taking the leap and being a part of the film, and I would love to repay the favor.”
Will We Ever See An R-Rated Spider-Man in the MCU?
As interesting as this would be, the odds of there ever being an R-rated Spider-Man in the MCU are low. Even after nearly two decades of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man remains Marvel’s most popular character and has widespread appeal across multiple generations of fans. Including Spider-Man in an R-rated project would alienate a key segment of the superhero’s target audience. Marvel has shown a willingness to take things into more adult territory before, but it’s for titles like Deadpool & Wolverine, featuring characters that easily lend themselves to that approach. Spider-Man doesn’t really fit that bill.
There’s also the matter of logistics regarding film and TV rights, which impact different characters in different ways. For instance, Vincent D’Onofrio has said multiple times that his version of Wilson Fisk is relegated to the TV shows and can’t be used in movies. The opposite could be true for Spider-Man, who has yet to appear in one of Marvel’s live-action TV shows for Disney+. Under the terms of Sony’s deal with Marvel, Sony has Spider-Man TV rights for live-action shows of any length, plus animated series where episodes are 44 minutes or longer. So, if Spider-Man were to appear in a Punisher TV show, Sony and Disney would have to come together and work around the red tape again.
The studios could very well decide to do that. After all, this partnership has been quite lucrative for all parties. However, there’s a question of whether or not an “R-rated version of Spider-Man” makes sense from a storytelling perspective. It arguably would be a strong fit for Brand New Day, which finds Peter living an extremely isolated existence that takes a toll on his mental health. Because he’s in such a dark place emotionally, he could be prone to more violent outbursts and stop pulling his punches. However, it sounds like Peter’s arc in Brand New Day is going to be learning the value of personal connections again, so his perspective will probably have changed by the time the credits roll. Doing an “R-rated” Spider-Man just for the sake of making him “R-rated” at that point may not be very effective or satisfying.
This isn’t to say there wouldn’t be any place for Spider-Man in a Punisher-centric project. He’d arguably work better as something of a foil to Frank Castle, carrying his PG-13 sensibilities over into an R-rated movie/show without fully embracing the R rating himself. There would be ways to push the envelope of Spider-Man’s inherent PG-13 nature while still staying true to the spirit of the character. If Peter started brutally murdering enemies or using swear words in his quips, that would rub fans the wrong way. But if it still felt like Spider-Man, people could be open to it. It’ll be up to Disney and Sony, but it’s hard to see them shaking things up to that extent.
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