In December 2021, three years after Netflix cancelled the Daredevil TV show, and just a few days after Charlie Cox’s cameo appearance at Matt Murdock was first seen by there public in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Vincent D’Onofrio reprised Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin, in the Hawkeye finale. Then D’Onofrio returned to the role earlier this year for Echo, and next, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans with a Disney+ subscription can look forward to him and Cox finally reuniting onscreen as members of the Daredevil: Born Again cast. And yet, it appears that Kingpin being in the middle of Sony and Marvel’s battle for characters has prevented D’Onofrio from participating in another Marvel Studios project.
Among the things we know about Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, another one of the upcoming Marvel TV shows, is that it explores an alternate take on the MCU Peter Parker’s origin story where he’s mentored by Norman Osborn instead of Tony Stark. Charlie Cox will reprise Daredevil in the animated series, and villains like Doctor Octopus, Scorpion, Chameleon and Rhino are also confirmed to appear. However, when D’Onofrio was asked at Fan Expo Boston (via Comicbook) about if he’ll voice Kingpin in the show, he answered:
I'm going to transparently say this: You know the whole Marvel-Sony thing, right? So there are characters — Marvel characters invented by Marvel, written by Marvel — that are caught in between Marvel and Sony. And so it takes a long time for them to figure out who is doing what.
Kingpin is indeed one of the more complicated Marvel characters to keep track of when it comes to rights these days. There’s certainly no denying that he’s one of the more prominent members of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery, having been introduced in 1967’s The Amazing Spider-Man #50. However, ever since Frank Miller’s run on the Daredevil comic book series, Kingpin’s been an equally important adversary to the Man Without Fear, if not more so. So while both Marvel and Sony can use the character, the respective studios can only incorporate him into certain kinds of projects.
It’s still unclear exactly how that’s split up, but when it comes to live-action fare, along with Vincent D’Onofrio’s appearances as Wilson Fisk, Michael Clarke Duncan also played him in the 2003 movie Daredevil, which was released by 20th Century Fox. Animation-wise, Kingpin hasn’t appeared in any TV shows since Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, which also aired in 2003, but Liev Schreiber did voice him in the 2018 movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. So as Vincent D’Onofrio said below, it’s hard to keep track of where the villain will appear next:
I just never really know where [Kingpin can show up]. My character is in that kind of situation, unlike Charlie's. So I don't know, it's part of the deal when it comes to playing Kingpin.
While Marvel Studios clearly doesn’t have any problems throwing Kingpin into its live-action TV shows, I am curious to learn if it’s possible for him to be included in Tom Holland’s next Spider-Man movie or if that’s off the table. Going back to Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, not only will Vincent D’Onofrio not be involved, it remains to be seen if Kingpin can be used at all. If he can, it still seems doubtful that he’ll show up in Season 1, but Season 2 has been announced too, so maybe there’s hope for that batch of episodes.
Though a specific release date hasn’t been announced yet, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is expected to premiere sometime on the 2024 TV schedule. Meanwhile, Daredevil: Born Again is will drop sometime in March 2025.
