DAREDEVIL Star Vincent D'Onofrio Reveals Why He Can't Reprise Kingpin Role In SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

DAREDEVIL Star Vincent D'Onofrio Reveals Why He Can't Reprise Kingpin Role In SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY

Daredevil: Born Again star Vincent D'Onofrio has addressed his supposed absence from Spider-Man: Brand New Day, explaining that it all comes down to...complicated rights issues? You can learn more here!

By JoshWilding - Apr 04, 2025 11:04 AM EST
Filed Under: Daredevil

Daredevil: Born Again has seen Mayor Wilson Fisk attempt to put an end to vigilantes in New York. His main target looks set to remain the Man Without Fear as we head into the final two episodes, though the Kingpin has mentioned Spider-Man, and many fans remain desperate to see these three cross paths. 

The wall-crawler teaming up with Daredevil to battle Fisk remains the dream Spider-Man 4 (now titled Spider-Man: Brave New World) scenario for many fans. Unfortunately, it's still hard to say just how likely that is. 

Kingpin actor Vincent D'Onofrio recently spoke to Josh Horowitz and explained why he doesn't currently expect to bring his character into Spider-Man: Brand New Day or any movie, for that matter.

"The only thing I know is not positive. It's a very hard thing to do, for Marvel to use my character," he claimed. "It's a very hard thing to do, because of ownership and stuff."

"Right now, I’m only usable for television series," D'Onofrio continued. "Different kinds of series, whatever it is, but not even a one-off Fisk movie or anything like that, it’s all caught up in rights and stuff. I don’t know when that would work out, or if it ever would work out at all, actually."

What rights issues could he be referring to? Well, the Kingpin debuted in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man #50, likely meaning he's one of only a few characters who are somehow shared between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures (Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman is another, though that's also complicated).

However, with those two studios working hand-in-hand on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it surely wouldn't be that difficult to come to an arrangement for the MCU's Kingpin of Crime to battle Tom Holland's Peter Parker. 

"I think if the powers that be want that to happen then it will happen, you know?" D'Onofrio said last year of a possible meeting with Spider-Man. "I think there certainly hasn't been any kind of talk that it's not gonna happen."

"I mean, to me that's the direction that we should go in...but who knows? You know, you get these calls and they're like, 'Oh we're doing this now.' I'm like, 'Oh, okay.' You know, it's like that." Perhaps his attitude has "changed" because Spider-Man: Brand New Day will give fans the street-level story they're so desperate for. We'll have to wait and see. 

However, without reading too much into D'Onofrio's comments, this does feel a little like someone who is deflecting and trying to throw fans off the scent!

Spider-Man 4 has been officially dated for July 31, 2026, with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton helming a script penned by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers.

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CholoScorpion
CholoScorpion - 4/4/2025, 11:55 AM
Cowards.
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 4/4/2025, 11:56 AM
Damn, these rights issues are so annoying. IDK how they're gonna pull off Spidey and Daredevil teaming up to fight Kingpin in live-action because I don't see Holland doing an MCU show.
BigPhilbowski
BigPhilbowski - 4/4/2025, 12:14 PM
@ModHaterSLADE - Sony can use KP for movies so if they labeled it and released it as a Spidey movie through Sony it should be fine
ModHaterSLADE
ModHaterSLADE - 4/4/2025, 12:21 PM
@BigPhilbowski - Good to know
BlackStar25
BlackStar25 - 4/4/2025, 11:59 AM
Disney and Sony don't want it....Simple as that...If you can do No Way Home...You CAN do anything...
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 4/4/2025, 12:01 PM
@BlackStar25 - the likeliest explanation that they don’t want to do it right now atleast which is unfortunate

Hopefully BND still turns out well as is!!.
SheepishOne
SheepishOne - 4/4/2025, 12:02 PM
I don’t know how true that is. I mean, I won’t pretend to be an expert on all the intricacies of character rights between studios, but Fox had the movie rights to both Daredevil and Fisk, and Disney now owns Fox. Sony obviously has at least animation rights to the character for Spider-Verse and video game rights. And then Netflix and Marvel television had television rights to both Daredevil and Kingpin for that series, which Marvel Studios has currently.

So it’s possible Fox had worked out a deal for Kingpin on screen which has since expired, but Sony was able to use Matt Murdock in Far From Home, so there’s obviously some wiggle room on where these characters can pop up.

I guess what I’m saying is I don’t believe Kingpin is off the table for a Spidey movie, especially since the question becomes who has the film rights between Marvel and Sony. Seems like they just have to do whatever was done for Matt to show up in FFH.
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 4/4/2025, 12:03 PM
the cuckpin is out, its all about that queenpin now
FrankenDad
FrankenDad - 4/4/2025, 12:15 PM
@harryba11zack - She has a name. Peter Parker.
dagenspear
dagenspear - 4/4/2025, 1:41 PM
@harryba11zack - You've been watching the show, you know Kingpin is still doing what he wants in a situation.
harryba11zack
harryba11zack - 4/4/2025, 2:09 PM
@dagenspear - "You've been watching the show, you know cuckpin is still doing what he wants in a situation." ....wrong, she still doesn't let him watch. User Comment Image
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 4/4/2025, 12:04 PM
Jessica Drew did NOT start or ever appear in Spider-man comics thus Sony do NOT own Jessica Drew at all, however they did manage to wangle a clause to her in that Marvel lost film rights to ANY Spider related supe thus Drew could turn up in an MCU film but cannot suit up as Spider-woman without a greenlight from Sony.

Vincent isn't far off on Kingping however, Sony own his rights but there are exception clauses, they cannot prevent Disney using him in a DD film or any DD related TV series hence why to use him Hawkeye revovled around a DD story and DD character (as in Echo's origin). Fisk can easily appear in any Spider-man films however as those are already collabs tween Disney and Sony, he just couldn't turn up in a Dr Strange or Cpt America film.

The entire Sony Marvel contract was leaked online after one of the big Sony hacks, they aren't hard to find copies off for clarity, the only thing that didn't leak was the specific deal with the MCU so it is possible additional conditions were put in place with that but doubt Disney would have signed away any additional rights in that.
SATW42
SATW42 - 4/4/2025, 12:05 PM
I think it might be him just answering the question in a way that he knows is safe and won't receive too much scrutiny.

There's no other studio that has movie rights to Fisk, it's Marvel and Sony. When they are making the Spider-Man movies together, it's anything goes as far as I understand, plus Sony is the one who always wants a certain amount of MCU characters in their Spider-Man movies so, yeah I'm not buying it.

The only other problem is I guess maybe some weird contract blip with 20th Century Fox (even though that's Disney now) but I thought all that was finally cleared up with the chains coming off the X-Men, Daredevil was in No Way Home, and elektra was in Deadpool and Wolverine.

SATW42
SATW42 - 4/4/2025, 12:08 PM
although, with Spider-Man not able to show up in television shows, maybe they don't want Kingpin dealing with Spider-Man because then everyone will keep asking "where's spider-man" in every future iteration of Daredevil with Kingpin
SpiderParker14
SpiderParker14 - 4/4/2025, 12:06 PM
Fine with me. I always felt that Kingpin is more of a Daredevil villain than a Spider-Man villain.
fanboy03191
fanboy03191 - 4/4/2025, 12:38 PM
@SpiderParker14 - maybe but in the 60s and 70s he was almost a Spidey exclusive. Not sure when he and DD really became enemies. Born again maybe?
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 4/4/2025, 2:42 PM
@fanboy03191 - Daredevil #170 in 1981 (in "The Kingpin Must Die!")

Synopsis for "The Kingpin Must Die!"
Retired in Japan, Kingpin sends his wife, Vanessa, to New York to hire Nelson and Murdock. Kingpin's plan is to turn state's evidence against the East Coast crime bosses. Vanessa is captured by the mob so they can lure Kingpin back to New York and kill him. DD gets in the way and has a confrontation with Bullseye.

It was from then on that he became one of DD's major villains and the Sony rights allowed exceptions specificaly for DD due to how much history they had as well as some grey area exceptions for other IP's still held by Marvel who had history with him prior to when the deal was signed in 99'.

The Drew clause is only cos Sony didn't want Marvel to cheat the deal by creating or using any other spider related hero (even if they created a new one such as a mutant) whilst they were developing Spider-Man films. Instead Sony cheated by creating a Peter type origin Jess Drew to get around being unable to use the Hydra related Jessica Marvel still owned the IP of.
movieguy18
movieguy18 - 4/4/2025, 12:09 PM
How can you not have him IF it’s street-level? Daredevil Born Again wouldn’t make sense if Spider-Man: Brand New Day is street-level without Fiske
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 4/4/2025, 12:11 PM
Damn , I didn’t know that Kingpin could potentially be caught up in the whole Marvel-Sony rights kerfuffle but makes sense given he debuted within the pages of Spider Man…

However then how was Fox able to use him for the 2003 film if the film rights were apparently with Sony and the tv ones with Marvel (the latter of which explains why they were able to have him in their show)?.

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Anyway , I hope it does work out sooner then later since a DD & Spidey team up against Kingpin is too good to pass up imo!!.
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 4/4/2025, 12:24 PM
@TheVisionary25 - Specific to the DD film the studio carved out a loan to use him as they didn't own the IP, only a deal with Marvel for Daredevil and his related IPs other than Kingin.

However Marvel always had an exception clause for Fisk, they could still use him in anything DD related but then that film wasn't made by Marvel and they couldn't hand over their exception clause to them hence the need for the Sony loan.

Now that Disney owns Marvel and Fox and thus fully owns all the rights related to DD Disney can use that exception clause fully to put Fisk into anything heavily DD related. That is why Hawkeye revolved around Echo as that ensured they could exploit the exception clause without Sony having any veto power over it.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 4/4/2025, 12:30 PM
@Apophis71 - interesting. Thanks for letting me know.

Hopefully don’t it doesn’t make the story they are doing in Born Again with the AVTF feel smaller then since they can’t use Spidey on tv or Fisk in film for now.

Let’s get other vigilantes in there!!.
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 4/4/2025, 12:36 PM
@TheVisionary25 - Hawkeye proved there are ways to work around stuff as did Spiderverse creating the Jess Drew Spider-Woman. Disney CAN use Kingpin in films, just limitations on it as would need to be a Spider-man film with Sony or a DD one without but it is complicated and an actor may not know the specifics and only that it is complicated :D

The only additional problem is Disney won't want to P on Sony's shoes over Fisk and loose the deal for Peter as a result so just cos they can doesn't mean they will. They will want to ensure Sony is cool with anything they do with him even if technicaly there isn't a legal need to consult with them over it.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 4/4/2025, 12:41 PM
@Apophis71 - that makes sense

Honestly , I don’t need the character to be a giant presence in the MCU so him just being in DD or Spidey films is fine by me so hopefully both parties can agree to that in the future.
Patient2670
Patient2670 - 4/4/2025, 12:12 PM
"Spider-Man 4 (now titled Spider-Man: Brave New World)" - Should be "Brand New Day", FYI, Josh.
MotherGooseUPus
MotherGooseUPus - 4/4/2025, 12:16 PM
i just thought this was hilarious:

User Comment Image

But Seriously, Marvel, Sony... cut the f*cking shit and do your fans right:

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tvor03
tvor03 - 4/4/2025, 12:21 PM
It could very well be an issue with Netflix, not Sony.
Apophis71
Apophis71 - 4/4/2025, 12:26 PM
@tvor03 - It isn't, the Netflix shows were made by Marvel Studios TV division under Disney, Netflix only had an exclusive distribution deal not an IP ownership one and that expired two years after they ceased being made.
MartianManHuntr
MartianManHuntr - 4/4/2025, 12:25 PM
This is good news, keep these shitty TV series separate from movies. Marvels already shoehorned in 2 characters from TV series and bombed.

Keep them separate

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dracula
dracula - 4/4/2025, 1:08 PM
So how was Fox able to use Kingpin then?

What if its a Daredevil project they can use him?

Thing is though, Sony cant use him

Spectacular Spiderman turnwd Tombstone into a crime boss because Kingpin was tied to the Daredecil rights
DarthOmega
DarthOmega - 4/4/2025, 1:41 PM
Sucks. I'd love to see that interaction.

Also I haven't had a chance to watch it yet. How are y'all feeling about the new Daredevil show? Good, great, meh?
Order66
Order66 - 4/4/2025, 2:12 PM
Sony is literally a cancer to everything Marvel wants to do.
Lem1
Lem1 - 4/4/2025, 3:13 PM
What utter garbage. Stupid corporate greed and shortsightedness. When James Cameron pitched the Aliens seekwill, he drew the name and multiple - basically ALIEMS = $$$ on a drawing board & they got the picture.
Someone needs ta flippin' do that at a comic con with these execs present and write Spider-Man x Daredevil vs Kingpin = $$$$$$$
BlackSpiderman
BlackSpiderman - 4/4/2025, 3:19 PM
Everytime I see Sony attached to any article I'm triggered! Its never good news!

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