The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been characterized as the first mega crossover of superheroes in history, but apparently it is not the first of its kind, because in ‘Spider-Man 2,’ with Tobey Maguire, this had already happened and it almost went unnoticed. The Punisher did a cameo towards the end of the film which was going to solidify into a crossover, but they never pulled the trigger on it.
The movie of ‘Spider-Man 2’ directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire is for many the best movie that was made about the character, but interestingly that year (2004) another Marvel movie was going to come out, ‘The Punisher’, who was played by Thomas Jane, and was not very well received, but apparently, there were big plans for these characters to clash.
In a brief scene, we can see The Punisher in ‘Spider-Man 2’, towards the end of the movie, when we see that Mary Jane runs out on her wedding to go with Peter, along the way, when she passes through a fountain, a man turns to look at her and it is none other than the mercenary.
Originally it was planned to use actor Thomas Jane for this cameo, but due to problems with the actor’s agenda, it was decided to simplyuse his double, who is almost identical. The idea was to bring these two heroes together in the future.
After ‘Spider-Man 2’ we waited three years for the third part, which was highly criticized by the fans, and for ‘The Punisher’ we waited four years before another story was released. The main actor was replaced with Ray Stevenson and Frank Castle was gunning with a new face.
You can see ’The Punisher’ in this video at 1:40.
