Now with four standalone adventures under his belt, it’s safe to say that Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has faced a wild array of villains up to this point. One big bad he has yet to square up against, though, is one that has spent more time in Hell’s Kitchen than wandering into Queens causing trouble.
Vincent D’Onofrio has been very vocal about wanting to see Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin square up against Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, but blamed studio rights for creating the holdup. Well, according to cap-wearing world-builder Kevin Feige, that might not be as big of a problem as we expected.
Speaking to Josh Horowitz about where potential Spider-Man stories, Feige admitted that Kingpin was never out of consideration to take on the hero he first shared a comic book page with. Were rights issues really that much of a problem in holding up a fresh new superhero showdown? “They’re not, they’re not,” Feige assured. “There are things to navigate like everything else. We talked about all those characters at one point.”
Up until now, the only big street-level players that Spidey has crossed paths with are The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) in Spider-Man: Brand New Day and, unknowingly, Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Annoyingly, fans also came close to having Rosario Dawson reprising her role as Claire Temple from Daredevil in the new Spidey movie, before the scene was cut. In the case of Fisk, his presence is briefly felt in the new chapter, as a Mayor Fisk poster appears in the background of one scene in the film, but that's all we've got so far.
The good thing is, whatever the connection, big or small, it’s clear there’s an effort to integrate more of these characters that aren’t fighting planet-devouring threats like Galactus, and instead bump into heroes that are trying to stop corrupt political moves and weapons deals. We’ll just have to keep our web shooters crossed that Fisk and Spidey cross paths somewhere down the line and maybe even Frank and Matt Murdock drop in to lend a hand, fist, or some immensely unnecessary firepower while they’re at it.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now in the UK, and releases on July 31 in the US. For more, check out our Spider-Man: Brand new Day review or dive into our spoiler-filled breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene.
