As the first to debut, as well as the only one to get three full seasons alongside Jessica Jones, Daredevil was always viewed as the flagship series of Netflix’s collaboration with Marvel Television. The show also received some of the strongest reviews from critics, particularly when it came to the signature fight sequences, and the loss of Matt Murdock seemed to hit fans harder than the rest of his Defenders cohorts when it was announced that all of the streaming service’s Marvel slate was axed.
Due to the timing, which not-too-coincidentally happened alongside Disney’s takeover of Fox, the smart money was on the entire Netflix lineup being canceled so that Marvel Studios could reboot Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist and the Punisher into the MCU. While Kevin Feige was initially planning on casting fresh faces, speculation over the last few months has hinted that Charlie Cox, Krysten Ritter and Jon Bernthal could all be set to reprise their roles whenever the characters show up again.
Of course, one of the undoubted highlights of the entire Netflix/Marvel experiment was Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, with the actor’s commanding performance establishing him as one of the greatest-ever live-action Marvel villains by the end of Daredevil’s first season. The 60 year-old has consistently voiced his desire to keep playing Kingpin, too, and now we’ve heard that he may yet get his wish.
Our sources – the same ones who told us a She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel show were in development for Disney Plus months before they were announced – have informed us that Kingpin is definitely returning to the MCU. And better yet, D’Onofrio is expected to be back in the role. Though it’s said that the actor may not have signed on the dotted line yet and as such, may not able to publicly confirm it at this time.
In any case, Kingpin will become part of the MCU’s Spider-Man franchise to begin with, either through a small cameo appearance in the third installment or a more prominent role in the planned fourth outing for Tom Holland’s web-slinger. This is designed to establish him in Marvel Studios’ shared universe, but he’ll then operate as a villain pulling the strings in the background and show up in other projects, most likely tying into Daredevil‘s introduction to the MCU.
That’s all we know for now, but hopefully D’Onofrio does indeed return as Kingpin, because given how well he embodied the role on the small screen, he stands a chance of becoming one of the long-running franchise’s best big screen villains if given the opportunity.
