Before Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man premiered on Disney+, there were rumblings that Vincent D'Onofrio would lend his voice to an animated version of the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk.
It made sense with Charlie Cox's Daredevil set to appear but the series has been and gone and there was no sign of the villain currently serving as New York Mayor in Daredevil: Born Again. So, was he cut or is he being saved for a future season?
During a recent Q&A, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man showrunner Jeff Trammell discussed adding the Man Without Fear to the show and addressed the Kingpin rumours head-on.
"[Charlie Cox] has been awesome to work with," he started. "I did not know that we would get the opportunity to have him in the show. Very early on, I was like, 'Can we use Daredevil?' And they were like, 'Yes.' I was like, 'Can I use Charlie?' And they were like, 'Yes.' I was like, 'Are you sure?' Because this was before even the show had been announced."
"So, yeah, he's been awesome to work with," Trammell continued. "I haven't had the pleasure of working with Vincent D'Onofrio...yet. Hopefully. So, we'll see."
As for whether casting Cox as Daredevil changed his plans for the hero to appear in only one episode, he teased, "It did not change my plans for Season 1, is what I will say. [Laughs]" The insinuation seems to be that the casting did change his plans for season 2, especially as the finale teased 'ol Hornhead's return alongside Finesse.
During a recent interview, Marvel Television boss Brad Winderbaum revealed, "Season 2 [will be released] in '26, I think. We will have a Spider-Man season every year if I have anything to say about it. What usually happens, as you know, in animation, is that there's a bigger gap between Season 1 and Season 2 than in subsequent seasons, and that'll be similar in Friendly."
"We will have to wait a little bit more than a year for Season 2," he added, "but then after that, it should come out on an annual cadence, hopefully."
The hope had been that the wall-crawler might team up with Daredevil in Spider-Man 4. Unfortunately, all signs point to that being another Multiversal blockbuster that gives street-level storytelling a miss. For now, at least.
Until then, we're sure their reunion in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will be suitably spectacular.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming a hero, with a journey unlike we've ever seen and a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots.
The talented voice cast includes Hudson Thames, Colman Domingo, Eugene Byrd, Grace Song, Zeno Robinson, Hugh Dancy and Charlie Cox.
The head writer is Jeff Trammell and Mel Zwyer is the supervising director. Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt and Trammell serve as executive producers.
In our review of the series, we concluded by saying, "Amazing, spectacular, and downright astonishing - Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man exceeds every expectation and is a true love letter to the world's greatest superhero...the end result is the ultimate Spider-Man TV series."
All episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man are now streaming on Disney+.