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.