Vincent D’Onofrio Admits ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ “Is Going To Be Very, Very Different Than The Netflix Show”

John F. Trent |

Mar 27, 2023

Fra Fee as Kazi and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in Marvel Studios' HAWKEYE. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Actor Vincent D’Onofrio will return to his role as Kingpin, which he portrayed on Marvel TV and Netflix’s Daredevil series and reprised in Hawkeye, in the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again series on Disney+.

D’Onofrio recently spoke about the series, which he is currently filming, to Newsweek revealing the series will be different from the Netflix series.

He asserted, “We’ve only just started shooting. I think we’re a couple weeks in, and the show is going to be very, very different than the Netflix show, and it’s so exciting because what we’re doing is quite something.”

“I think it’s something that people are not going to expect,” he elaborated. “But, always with these Marvel old comic stories that are being revisited and reinvented by us actors, and the writers, the main thing is to answer the fans.”

D’Onofrio continued to explain, “To give them what they want but try to be original in some way at the same time, and so that’s what we’re doing on the show. It’s definitely an original way to look at this, and it’s really deep, really emotional.”

D’Onofrio went on to reveal that the series is already planned to have two seasons. He told the outlet, “And, by the second season, there are gigantic, gigantic payoffs—in the first season, too, but I can’t say much about that—but the fans are gonna really get what they want. It’s really quite cool to be doing it.”

However, before they get to a second season, D’Onofrio indicated they will be filming all the way up until December. He relayed, “It’s hard work. We have a lot of episodes to shoot. We’ve got a long road ahead. We won’t be finished until December, and so it’s quite a commitment, but this character is just… I love playing him.”

D’Onofrio’s comments echo what Daredevil Matt Murdock has repeatedly said about the series. Back in 2022 at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, he told ExtraTV, “I don’t know anything. I haven’t seen a script,”

He went on to add, “My feeling is, based on the title ‘Born Again,’ I think that the sense is it is a new beginning, it is going to be different, it is going to be tonally different. It is going to be new stories, and new ideas. And like Kevin [Feige] said, it is a Season 1, it is not Season 4, so it is a whole new thing, which I think is the right way to go. If you are going to do it again, let’s do it differently.”

He would later tell NME, “This has to be a reincarnation, it has to be different, otherwise why are we doing it?”

Cox also noted, “My opinion is this character works best when he’s geared towards a slightly more mature audience. My instinct is that on Disney+ it will be dark but it probably won’t be as gory.”

Speaking specifically wanting to continue the Netflix series, Cox said, “I would say to those people, we’ve done that. Let’s take the things that really worked, but can we broaden? Can we appeal to a slightly younger audience without losing what we’ve learned about what works?”