Spider-Man’s Most Forgotten Villains Confirmed for Major Movie Event

At least half of a major Spider-Man: Brand New Day fan theory has been tacitly confirmed by the presence of some classic Marvel villains in the film's trailer.

With the release of the most recent trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, audiences got their best look yet at everything that the next Marvel Cinematic Universe feature has to offer. And, while there is plenty to dissect in the trailer itself, the presence of what can only be Hand ninjas has fans more excited than ever for Marvel Studios' fourth Spider-Man movie.

Who Are the Hand — And What Do They Want With Tom Holland's Spider-Man?

The ancient, undying ninja cult known as The Hand was introduced in the pages of 1981's Daredevil #174 by the legendary Frank Miller. Purportedly the heirs to an inhuman cult born billions of years before the emergence of humanity, The Hand worships The Beast, a demonic entity that exists only to sow anguish and suffering in its ultimate bid for total annihilation.

While The Hand has always been most closely associated with the likes of Daredevil and Elektra, nearly every major Marvel Comics character has had at least one harrowing encounter of their own. This is especially true for Spider-Man, who spends so much of his time swinging through the orbits of characters such as Daredevil, which in turn only makes it that much more likely that the Wall-Crawler ends up crossing paths with The Hand yet again.

Although there are no firm details as to what role The Hand will be playing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it is clear that they will be gunning for Peter Parker at some point during the film's runtime. Then again, Spider-Man isn't the only one that The Hand will have their sights set on, and another fan-favorite character might just be their true target.

Why The Hand's Presence in Spider-Man: Brand New Day Is Such a Big Deal for the MCU's Punisher

All the way back in 2025, it was rumored that The Hand would be a part of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, leading many to speculate that their place in the film would largely involve an attempt to recruit John Bernthal's Frank Castle, better known as the Punisher. Although The Hand and the Punisher might seem opposed to one another, recent comic book storylines drew them closer together than readers could have possibly imagined.

During writer Jason Aaron's 2022 run on The Punisher, the titular antihero quite literally took on the role of leading The Hand into what he believed would be a bright if bloody new era. As it turned out, this was all part of a grander scheme to turn the Punisher into a living vessel for The Beast to inhabit on Earth, which was ultimately thwarted after months of horrifying and heartbreaking revelations continued to surface.

There is also the chance that The Hand of the MCU will want nothing to do with Frank Castle, but rather will see him as the same kind of threat as Spider-Man or Daredevil. Because The Hand has been a part of Daredevil's world since the Netflix era of Defenders shows, there is a very real possibility that Jason Aaron's Punisher epic won't actually get translated for the silver screen, at least not in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is currently slated to arrive in theaters on July 31.