The next Spider-Man film in the Tom Holland franchise, Brand New Day, has just wrapped filming and is said to co-star both Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk and Jon Bernthal as The Punisher. A new report from scooper DaneilRPK on Twitter has made it known that according to his sources, The Punisher might not be the only Netflix MCU star to join in on the theatrical fun, and while the character in question has not been revealed yet, the obvious choice of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil (who was briefly in the last Spider-Man film, No Way Home), has been ruled out. So, who else exactly is going to be joining the web-slinger?

According to Daniel Richtman, aka DanielRPK, The Punisher and The Hand will not be the only remnant of the Netflix/Defender days to be in the film. At first glance, most MCU fans probably think of Daredevil right off the bat. But, according to the scooper, he explicitly states that it is in fact not the devil of hell’s kitchen that will be in the film. While this seems like the obvious choice, there are a ton of other characters that would make sense in the film, and some of the other most logical choices that come to mind are Finn Jones as Iron Fist, Rosario Dawson as Night Nurse, or possibly even Vincent D’Onofrio as the infamous Kingpin. Aside from that, there is always Mike Colter as Luke Cage or Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones, but I personally think those last two are the least likely of the bunch. Below are the original tweets:

While Richtman is still “awaiting the green light” from his source to reveal the character, it’s still always fun to guess who the mystery character might be. Assuming that the online leaks are accurate and the film does in fact feature The Hand and The Punisher, I think Finn Jones could be making a comeback as the Immortal Iron Fist. The Hand and Iron Fist kind of play hand in hand from a story-arc viewpoint, and let’s be honest, I can’t help but think the chemistry between Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and Jones as Danny Rand would be excellent. I am not saying I would expect Jones to be in the film as a full fledged featured character, but I could see the opening scene of the film being Spider-Man taking out a faction of The Hand with Iron Fist dropping in mid-fight to help out.

Including Iron Fist would do two things: solidify The Hand in the film as being the same Hand from the Netflix saga, maintaining in-universe cohesiveness, and opening up a lane for other characters besides Daredevil to make the jump from the Netflix shows to the big screen. The two characters have a healthy superhero back and forth in the comics, just like Daredevil and Spider-Man, and in my opinion would translate well to the big screen. If it does end up being Finn Jones, I don’t see it being Danny Rand like in the Daredevil cameo from No Way Home that featured Matt Murdock and not his masked counterpart. If they go the Iron Fist route, I would imagine it would be a full fledged suited up version.

My next most likely guess would be Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple aka Night Nurse. The character was the unifying glue from the original Defenders saga on Netflix appearing in all of the original Defender series (the only series she did not appear in was The Punisher). Because of this, she seems like an obvious choice to be another unifying link between the films and the Netflix shows. She also would have a ton of information on The Hand, and although she never has actually interacted with Frank Castle in the shows she was originally going to appear in The Punisher as well but had to back out due to scheduling conflicts. Aside from all of that, she is also a nurse and if one of the characters takes some heavy damage in the film she could be used as the assist to mend them up. If the reports about Spider-Man and The Punisher going up against the Savage Hulk are at all true, then I’m assuming someone is going to need medical help at some point during the film. While I hope that the character in question is actually Finn Jones, I realistically think Claire Temple is the most likely option here.

Now, for the long shot: Kingpin. We all know Kingpin is one of Spider-Man’s most infamous villains, and Vincent D’Onofrio has completely owned the role since Daredevil season one, so much so he’s been brought back for numerous MCU Disney+ shows already including Hawkeye, Echo, and Daredevil Born Again. During the events of Born Again, Wilson Fisk become the mayor of New York City where the events of Brand New Day will be taking place. It would make a ton of sense for the mayor of the city that Peter Parker lives in to show his face, especially considering at the end of Born Again the villain was in the process of expanding his reach that may even lead to a potential run for the presidency. Thinking about it, it would almost seem weird that Peter Parker and Wilson Fisk don’t cross paths at some point.

Kingpin would be a great villain to introduce into the Spider-Man franchise because of how intertwined the characters are, with Wilson Fisk being primarily a Spider-Man villain even more so then he is a Daredevil villain. The character could be used to set up another Spider-Man film in the future that could allow for a proper Daredevil/Spider-Man team up down the line. The only real issue I see here is the tone of this version of Wilson Fisk is much more brutal that anything this version of Peter Parker has ever come up against, but that doesn’t mean it should be ruled out. The Punisher is arguably much more brutal then even Wilson Fisk, and if his character can be altered to fit the more kid-friendly tone of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man then Sony and Disney can definitely do the same for Kingpin. And let’s just face it, who doesn’t want to see Spider-Man take on Kingpin someday? We’ve seen him in video games, comics, and even Into the Spider-Verse with Miles Morales, but we’ve still never seen Peter Parker face the villain in any sort of theatrical release. Maybe it’s about time?

Aside from the characters mentioned above, there are a ton more characters that could be used in Brand New Day as either a major player in the film all the way down to a blink and you’ll miss it cameo. As of now, we’re not sure who DanielRPK is talking about but we can guess until he reveals his info. To be fair, even with all of this online talk, all of this is still speculation until the trailer is released or even the film itself for that matter as this is something I don’t see the studio coming out and explicitly conforming themselves. Until then, let the speculation run wild! Who do you think this “other Netflix” character could be? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments! Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set for release on July 31st, 2026, so either way we don’t have much longer to wait until we can find out for ourselves first hand.

Source: DanielRPK