Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Kingpin Reference Brings The MCU 1 Step Closer To A Dream Crossover

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Spider-Man: Brand New Day!The Marvel Cinematic Universe keeps linking Tom Holland's Spider-Man to its biggest street-level New York characters, and a Kingpin crossover is closer than ever after Spider-Man: Brand New Day's reference to Wilson Fisk. A meeting between one of New York's biggest criminals and heroes has been one of the most fan-requested ideas for the MCU over the last decade, but they've still yet to meet even as both keep appearing in Marvel Studios projects.

There was hope that Brand New Day would change that as it moved through development. The smaller focus paved the way for Spider-Man to fight several New York crime bosses, such as Boomerang, Tarantula, Tombstone, and The Hand. Having him crack down on Fisk, who became the mayor of New York in Daredevil: Born Again and utilized martial law, made sense as a way to incorporate Vincent D'Onofrio's character.

Yet, Kingpin does not have a physical presence in Brand New Day. It's understandable to some degree after he was forced to resign as mayor and was exiled in Daredevil: Born Again season 2's finale. But that did not stop Marvel from referencing Fisk's reign in Spider-Man's movie completely.

When Peter goes into the alley by his apartment to test his inhibitor chip, a poster from Fisk's time as mayor, promoting Making NYC Safe and his anti-vigilante agenda, is seen plastered on a garbage can. It might not be much, but it's the first time an MCU movie has acknowledged Kingpin, and the proximity to Spider-Man hopefully means the two characters are on the verge of meeting after Brand New Day.

The MCU Has Been Setting Up A Spider-Man & Kingpin Showdown For Years Now

While Spider-Man's MCU movies didn't reference the Defenders-verse early on (and the Netflix shows were unable to tie in Spidey), Marvel Studios has looked to merge these worlds over the last several years.

This started with Charlie Cox having a cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Peter is unaware of Matt's vigilante lifestyle in the movie, only knowing that there is more to the blind "really good lawyer" after he catches a brick coming through the window. Considering Daredevil's battles with Kingpin across Daredevil and Daredevil: Born Again, Peter and Matt's meeting was seen as the first step toward a proper superhero team-up.

Rather than Brand New Day deliver on that pairing, Spider-Man teamed up with Jon Bernthal's Punisher, another Netflix casting that has carried over to the MCU. Frank Castle has his own history with Kingpin, but he doesn't discuss this with Peter in the movie. But by giving Spider-Man a second Daredevil character crossover, placing the Fisk poster as a Brand New Day Easter egg must have been done with an endgame in sight.

After all, Marvel even managed to include a Spider-Man reference in Daredevil: Born Again season 1 straight from Fisk's mouth. In his acceptance speech to being elected mayor, Fisk sold his anti-vigilante stance by remarking, "We don’t need a gun-toting vigilante who wears a skull on his chest, or a man who dresses in a spider outfit, or a guy who wears devil horns to save us." Punisher and Daredevil have already had a hand in fighting against Fisk since these comments, but Spider-Man hasn't.

Kingpin's Movie Rights Have Held Up A Spider-Man Crossover For Years, But They Might Not Anymore

The main reason that Kingpin and Spider-Man haven't met on screen already has been believed to be due to rights issues. Marvel knows how badly fans want to see the characters together, and both Holland and D'Onofrio have expressed a desire to make it happen. Whenever its been brought up in the past, the character's duel ownership between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures has been presented as a problem (even though they are working together on these Spider-Man movies).

Marvel Studios seems to have the rights to Fisk in live-action on TV, but Sony is seemingly in charge of him on the big screen. That's how Marvel could put him in shows like Hawkeye and Daredevil: Born Again, while Sony included him in animation for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. That's why D'Onofrio's comments about being in Spider-Man movies often are discouraging, such as saying the following in 2024:

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 and stuff. Right now, I'm only usable for television series, different kinds of series, whatever it is, but not even a one-off Fisk movie or anything like that. It's all caught up in rights and stuff. I don't know when that would work out, or if it would ever work out at all, actually, really…

However, Marvel Studios' Kevin Feige has said that Kingpin's rights issues aren't as complicated as D'Onofrio has indicated. During press for Brand New Day, Feige told Joshua Horowitz, "They're not, they're not. I mean, there are things to navigate like everything else, but we did [talk about it]." The comment is a notable change of tune regarding Kingpin's potential to be in a future Spider-Man movie, which feels much more positive after Brand New Day referenced him with the poster.

Perhaps this is why D'Onofrio has even had some more optimism about playing Kingpin in MCU movies. In 2025, he said, "I think that will eventually happen… I can't imagine that they won't figure out something eventually. We'll see." It may have been too difficult to make it work for Brand New Day, but perhaps the discussions Feige teased led to an understanding between Sony and Marvel for how it could happen next time.

Spider-Man 5 Is The Perfect Time To Have Spider-Man & Kingpin Meet

Given the record-breaking success of Brand New Day, Marvel and Sony are unlikely to mess with the approach for Spider-Man 5. The film should give viewers another New York-based, street-level story that dives deeper in the personal, psychological, and emotional challenges of being Spider-Man for Peter. And after briefly teasing Spider-Man defeating so many crime bosses, Kingpin rising to the top again for Spider-Man 5 would line up.

The movie is certainly a few years away, at least, which could free up Kingpin's story to do whatever the creators want for Spider-Man 5. Daredevil: Born Again is only confirmed to run through season 3 next year, and even if another season comes after, the series will likely end before Spider-Man 5 is ready. That would give the MCU a bit of time to wrap up a chapter of Kingpin's life on the small screen and set up his joining the big leagues next.

Kingpin would also act as a natural choice to appear after Daredevil and Punisher's roles in the previous two films. They could both return to team up with Spider-Man and use their combined skills to try and stop Fisk once and for all. Spider-Man 5 would then act as the (possibly culminating) event film for everything Marvel has been doing in New York's streets over the years.

Even if a main villain role can't happen for some reason, hopefully, Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Kingpin reference will at least secure some type of appearance from D'Onofrio's character in the sequel that puts him on screen with Holland's web-slinger at last.

Release Date

July 29, 2026

Runtime

145 minutes

Writers

Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers

Producers

Avi Arad, Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Amy Pascal, David Cain