Watch Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal cameo in each other’s Marvel audition tapes (exclusive)

Nick RomanoThu, October 1, 2026 at 2:00 PM UTC

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Tom Holland appears in Jon Bernthal’s Marvel auditionCredit: Sony PicturesKey Points -

New footage shows Tom Holland and Jon Bernthal helping each other record their Marvel audition tapes.

The actors helped each other out while filming the movie Pilgrimage in 2015.

“He actually suggested that, in his audition, I am in the frame,” Holland says in a clip from the Spider-Man: Brand New Day home release.

One of the many now-famous Marvel making-of stories tells how Tom Holland (Peter Parker/Spider-Man) and Jon Bernthal (Frank Castle/Punisher) helped each other with their respective auditions. The two actors worked together on the film Pilgrimage (2017), which shot in rural Ireland in 2015. And while on location, the actors, who would go on to work together again for The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, read with each other for their respective self-tapes.

“He had such focus and such belief; it was so beautiful,” Bernthal recalled in a 2025 appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. “He would say, ‘I’m Spider-Man.’ I mean, he really believed he was going to get it. I was like, ‘There’s probably a lot of people that want to be Spider-Man. You’re super talented and all, but the odds are kind of against you, but yeah, let’s make the tape.’”

As Brand New Day now heads home on digital (Oct. 6) and physical media (Dec. 15), Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek at the bonus features reveals more footage from those tapes that started it all.

“There’s no secret that I absolutely love Jon Bernthal,” Holland says in the clip (shown above). “He is one of the greatest and nicest people I have ever met in this business.”

Bernthal returns the adoration by calling his three-time costar “equal parts brilliant artist and beautiful human being.”

Holland recalls being in the fourth or fifth round of self-tapes for Spider-Man in the spring of 2015, around the same time Bernthal got the call to audition for the Punisher role in Netflix’s Daredevil season 2. “He actually suggested that, in his audition, I am in the frame,” Holland says. “He was like, ‘Look, this is going to the people that are gonna cast you as Spider-Man, like a second audition.’”

Holland went on to make his first appearance as Marvel’s new wall-crawler in Captain America: Civil War, while Bernthal headlined his own solo Punisher series at Netflix.

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“If anybody could’ve come and told us then that we’d be here now, I just think we’d be so thrilled,” Bernthal remarks. “Tom is the rare individual. He is absolutely a movie star. He runs the set with decency and with kindness. He leads by example. I’m enormously grateful that I get to be by his side on this. I’m grateful that Frank Castle gets to be there for Spider-Man.”

Jon Bernthal reads with Tom Holland in Holland’s Spider-Man auditionCredit: Sony Pictures

Spider-Man: Brand New Day picks up after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. The world has forgotten about Peter Parker, who attempts to live a solitary life but finds himself incapable of being without his loved ones: girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and bestie Ned (Jacob Batalon). His closest friend at this time is Frank Castle, though neither would admit that to the other.

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Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the film sees the arrival of Jean Grey (Sadie Sink), a powerful telepath and telekinetic who embarks on a rampage through New York City. She uses her mind to attack facilities belonging to Damage Control, a government organization tasked with handling situations involving enhanced individuals. Sink will return as one of the main stars of Marvel’s X-Men movie.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day will be available for purchase through digital retailers on Oct. 6, with a 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD release set for Dec. 15.

Watch the clip above.

on Entertainment Weekly

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