Director Vincent D’Onofrio is calling on Marvel and Sony to cut through red tape so his Daredevil: Born Again character, the villainous crime lord Kingpin, can face off against his longtime comic book nemesis Spider-Man on screen.
In response to a fan on social media asking for a live-action showdown between Spidey and Kingpin, D’Onofrio wrote, “If Sony and Marvel ever team up, maybe that’s the case. It’s a complicated rights issue. I hope so.”
D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is part of the Disney-Marvel IP machine, but the film rights to the red and blue wall-crawler are owned by Sony. However, the studio lends characters to Marvel so they can appear in films like Avengers: Infinity War.
Kingpin and Spider-Man have technically appeared in a movie together, but that was in the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Liev Schreiber provided the voice of Kingpin, who faces off against Miles Morales, played by Shameik Moore.
D’Onofrio recently starred as Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, in the new season of Daredevil: Born Again, which premiered on Disney+ on Tuesday night. In the new season, Fisk becomes the mayor of New York City and causes civil unrest with the help of an ultra-violent anti-vigilante group.
The long-awaited Spider-Man: Brand New Day marks the next appearance of the Dutch web-throwing hero. The film, which hits theaters on July 31, also stars Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, and Mark Ruffalo. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Chris McKenna and Eric Sommers. The sequel picks up after 2021’s No Way Home, where the entire world forgot Peter Parker was Spider-Man.
Sony released the trailer for “Brand New Day” on March 17th. It surpassed 1 billion views in just four days, making it the first movie trailer to reach this milestone.
