Vincent D'Onofrio: Wilson Fisk's Movie Rights Complicate Daredevil: Born Again

It turns out that our favorite Hell's Kitchen villain, Wilson Fisk, is off-limits for the big screen — according to Daredevil: Born Again star Vincent D’Onofrio himself.

"The only thing I know is not positive," D’Onofrio explained to Josh Horowitz on the podcast Happy Sad Confused recently. "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 and stuff."

He continued: “I’m only usable for television shows. Not even a one-off Wilson Fisk movie. 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.”

This revelation appears to rule out D’Onofrio's portrayal of Fisk appearing in any Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, thus also ruling him out of appearing in the upcoming Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday. This could also throw a wrench into plans for any potential Charlie Cox Daredevil movie, where fans would reasonably expect D’Onofrio to reprise his role as the villain.

D’Onofrio first appeared as Fisk, New York City’s most powerful crimelord and future mayor also known as Kingpin, in Marvel’s Daredevil. The 2015 Netflix original ran for three seasons, concluding with nearly 40 episodes in 2018. D’Onofrio’s portrayal has been widely acclaimed by fans and critics, so it's no surprise that he puts a lot of thought into how he wants Fisk to be perceived — especially when it comes to the influences he draws from.

“Anytime they were in a fight, or they were holding a gun, they looked nervous,” D’Onofrio told IGN last month, discussing the everyman performances of actors like Harrison Ford and other older greats that inspired his multifaceted villain.

“They carried their own humility into the action scenes with them. And I always thought that that was the way to go. That made it look real to me. Gary Cooper in Sergeant York, when he takes aim, when he becomes the sniper, it's the humility in his eyes that you see. It's amazing. I think that helps action scenes a lot. We're all very conscious of that.”

Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again is currently airing week-to-week on Disney+ and will premiere its finale on April 15, 2025.