Marvel’s got a bit of a villain problem. You know it, we know it and everyone else knows it. Despite the success that the studio’s found with their cinematic universe so far, they’ve always struggled to craft compelling, layered antagonists. Loki is one of the few exceptions, of course, but aside from Tom Hiddleston’s character, you’d struggle to find another solid bad guy in the MCU. On the big screen, at least.
On the small screen, it’s quite the opposite. Marvel’s had no trouble giving us great villains with their Netflix series and one of the best to date has been Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, who first showed up in Daredevil season 1. Almost ever since he made his debut, fans have been calling for the character to make the jump over to the silver screen, especially since the villain has a long history in the comic books with numerous Marvel heroes, not just the Man Without Fear.
Despite the fact that D’Onofrio himself has expressed interest in making the move, it still hasn’t happened and whenever it’s brought up, it’s almost always shot down by one of the Marvel head honchos. However, there is one filmmaker who’s rooting for it to come to fruition, and that’s James Gunn. While speaking with Fandango to promote Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the director said that he’d love to bring Kingpin into his franchise.
“The one guy I would love to bring into outer space is the Kingpin from the Daredevil TV show, so I don’t know if I’d want to bring an Avenger into outer space. But I wouldn’t mind bringing Wilson Fisk up there to see what he would do in outer space.”
Obviously, this is just wishful thinking on Gunn’s part. As fun as it’d be to see the character doing battle against the likes of Star-Lord and co., he’s most often associated with Spider-Man, the Punisher and Daredevil in the comics. So, if he were to ever show up in a feature film, it’s not likely it’d be one in the space-set franchise.
Again though, there’s been no indication of Marvel having any plans to place Kingpin on the big screen and unfortunately, we don’t see that changing. At least not in the near future. Who knows, though? Gunn’s got a lot of pull over at the studio, and even Chris Pratt has mentioned that he’d love to see Vincent D’Onofrio in the MCU films, so it could happen. Perhaps not in a Guardians of the Galaxy movie, but there’s really no reason he can’t appear in a future Spidey flick, right?
Tell us, do you want to see Kingpin on the big screen? Let us know in the usual place!