When the Marvel Cinematic Universe was born, audiences were promised an interconnected narrative that would be shared across every single theatrical movie. Such a concept was finally realized the day Earth's Mightiest Heroes assembled to take down Loki and his Chitauri forces. But as exciting as the first Avengers movie turned out to be, it was only the beginning. TV shows eventually entered into the mix with the hopes of expanding the universe even further. Unfortunately, not everything went as planned.
Sure, series like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Netflix's Daredevil referenced big events that occurred on the big screen. But for the most part, you could completely skip these projects altogether without missing out on any key or impactful storylines. On the bright side, the barrier between the two different mediums has started to thin out over time with the introduction of the Marvel Disney Plus series. But even if Ms. Marvel and Monica Rambeau made it into movie theaters after their debut on the small screen, not every hero can say the same. Moon Knight, She-Hulk, Daredevil, Echo, Agatha Harkness, White Vision, and many more have mostly remained disconnected from the rest of the MCU.
The worst part? It seems the situation might be more complicated than anticipated, as an iconic actor has confirmed his character can only be used in shows and not theatrical movies.
Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin can't appear in movies
During an interview for the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Vincent D'Onofrio revealed he can't reprise his role as the Kingpin of crime in movies when asked if he'd be interested in crossing paths with Spider-Man. Unfortunately, it all comes down to the complexity of how some character rights are distributed among studios:
"The only thing I know is not positive. It's a very hard thing to do for Marvel to use my character. It's a very hard thing to do because of ownership (...) Right now, still, I'm only usable for television series (...) not even a one-off Fisk movie or anything like that. It's all caught up in rights and stuff right now."
There was a time were Fox owned the rights to big Marvel characters such as Fantastic Four, The X-Men, and both Daredevil and Kingpin. However, ever since the Fox purchase, Disney has been able to use all those characters once again in the MCU — which his the reason why Mutants will play a huge role in Avengers: Doomsday. With that in mind, it would be easy to assume the House of Mouse has complete liberty when it comes to using Wilson Fisk, but we need to remember he's a villain usually associated with Spider-Man as well, and that's where the situation gets a bit trickier.
Sony holds the rights to Spider-Man and his rogue's gallery. Sure, the wall-crawler is also a part of the MCU, but that's only because the studio struck a deal with Disney that only applies to certain characters, such as Tom Holland's Peter Parker. On the other hand, Venom, Kraven, and Morbius remain under the Sony umbrella, explaining why none of them crossed paths with the web-slinger on their stand-alone movies. Unfortunately, the Kingpin might also be trapped in this complicated situation.
It's worth remembering that Wilson Fisk was the main antagonist of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, a movie produced and distributed by Sony. On the opposite side of the coin, Disney has only used the character on TV shows such as Echo, Hawkeye, and Daredevil: Born Again. With that in mind, it could be theorized that the House of Mouse doesn't have a final say about the big-screen portrayal of the Kingpin due to his status as a Spidey villain.
That's not to say that a new deal couldn't be made that would allow Vincent D'Onofrio's character to eventually appear in a big Marvel crossover movie. However, any hopes of watching him in Spider-Man: Brand New Day are gone. Maybe such a long-awaited crossover can finally happen in Spider-Man 5. One can only hope.
Daredevil: Born Again is now available on Disney Plus.