Looking over the 2026 movies schedule, there are a handful of upcoming superhero movies to look forward to. On the Marvel Cinematic Universe front, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set to entertaining theatergoing audience at the end of July, with this marking Tom Holland’s return to the franchise since 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. Now it’s been revealed that Holland’s Peter Parker is set to team up with another Avenger in Brand New Day, though to be honest, I’m more excited about the villain that’s also been lined up for the upcoming Marvel movie.
As shared by THR, and following just a few hours after the new Spider-Man costume tease, Mark Ruffalo has been tapped to reprise Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Hulk, in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, something that had been rumored over the last several months. Additionally, Michael Mando is on deck to reprise Mac Gargan, who was last seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming. With his return will bring the character’s transformation into The Scorpion.
News of Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk reprisal comes three years after he last played the character in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which can be streamed with a Disney+ subscription. Although Ruffalo and Tom Holland both appeared in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, neither of their characters shared any significant screen time. However, since they’re both scientifically gifted, I have no doubt they’ll get along splendidly.
As indicated earlier, Hulk will be the second Avenger Tom Holland’s Peter Parker teams up with in one of his own movies. He first did so with Tony Stark/Iron Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming, then the team-up trend continued with Nick Fury in Spider-Man: Far From Home, followed by Doctor Strange and the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield variants of Peter in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Jon Bernthal had already been announced to be reprising Frank Castle/The Punisher in Brand New Day, but needless to say that Mark Ruffalo’s character packs a lot of extra muscle.
And yet, I find myself being more excited to see Michael Mando’s Mac Gargan finally become The Scorpion. Not only was it teased in the Homecoming end-credits scene that Gargan was looking to exact revenge on the Wall-Crawler with other like-minded individuals, but Scorpion is one of those classic Spidey enemies who still hasn’t been adapted for film. Sure, it was cool to see Scorpion in action during the animated series Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man earlier this year, but I’ve been waiting for years for that character to try and impale Spidey with his cybernetic tail on the big screen. Now it’s happening, though it’s unclear if Scorpion will be the movie’s big bad or just a supporting antagonist.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day will begin principal photography later this month, and will arrive in theaters on July 31, 2026. This time around, Destin Daniel Cretton is sitting in the director’s chair, while Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers once again handled scripting duties.
