Kingpin actor Vincent D’Onofrio has been active on X (formerly Twitter) responding to users’ tweets about Daredevil: Born Again, which recently concluded its first nine-episode season on Disney+.
Vincent D’Onofrio actually responded to my criticism of how his Kingpin is portrayed as a big simp and cries all the time. His wife is better and is the new Kingpin. D’Onofrio blocked me on X for it. For the record, I did like the last episode a lot and said that I hope things continue to improve with Season 2.
Fan has woke concerns
A like-minded fan also tweeted at Vincent D’Onofrio with his own concerns about Daredevil: Born Again. The user is concerned that the show will double down on the wokeness and continue with its anti-conservative themes in the second season (it’s woke when the agenda comes ahead of the story):
Now that @Aaron Moorhead and @JustinHBenson with Dario have come out and basically said that they are using Daredevil as an anti conservative and cop show, I have a feeling @MarvelStudios and @DisneyPlus are going to double down on woke season 2. Sad they took their best product and decided to attack half of America. @vincentdonofrio I was hoping the reboot would be getting back to just good story telling, but at this point I guess it won’t even be that
Vincent D’Onofrio fires back
Vincent D’Onofrio caught win of the tweet and fired back that’s not the case:
This is absolute nonsense. We are not doubling down on any such thing. This statement is just not so.
If there was any truth to it i think i would know.
We are telling Daredevil stories. We are not pushing any agenda other than making a Kick ass super hero drama.
Kingpin is Trump?
The fan followed up by pointing to a woke review put out by Hollywood shill site Deadline with the headline, “‘Daredevil: Born Again’ TV Review: Disney+’s Long-Awaited Man Without Fear Series Is Fearless & Trump 2.0 Timely”:
I honestly think that is what you are doing, but you have to understand that as a fan or fans we have witnessed almost a decade of Marvel lecturing certain people. I was just a stand in around 2016 ish time period. Worked on a show Colony where the day after Trump won the writers, producers actors etc had an all hands production meeting. Usually, this during the season is for a show to be canceled or something happened to a crew member or actor as we spend so much time on set we become like a family on shows. It was to talk about how America is under a fascist government now, and it was all because of bigots and fascists and then someone pointed to me in front of the whole crew. After the show wrapped, I went back to another show I worked on, Agents of Shield. Pre Trump the show was about source material and the “Marvel Bible” . 1st day back there is a scene that’s either a time jump or multiverse and they have a history book about… Trump and Fascism. I watched in real time, from a crew member position, how almost every project was about politics. I see Dario say the show isn’t about Trump, but it’s hard for me to believe when he talks about the Punisher logo and cops and having to tackle the issue because of real life, even though that logo is used by police a symbol of belonging, and willing to put their life on the line for their community and has nothing to do with what they think it does. Though once again the show uses the extreme to represent the majority. Article after article also believes Born Again is about Trump.
D’Onofrio didn’t reply.
Is Daredevil: Born Again woke?
There definitely is wokeness sprinkled in the series, which I think has more to do with the original version before it was retooled.
They got rid of Matt Murdock’s two white blond best friends by killing off Foggy and writing out Karen. In the original version, neither of the actors was going to appear in the series. When the decision was made to retool the show, they added Deborah Ann Woll and Elden Henson and did the reshoots.
They also replaced Foggy and Karen with DEI actors and characters. Instead of partnering with Foggy and Karen, they partner Matt with Nikki M. James’ Kirsten Mcduffie and Clark Johnson’s Cherry.
Or how about Matt’s new girlfriend Heather? Talk about horrible writing. When Daredevil saves her from Muse, she tells Matt she saved herself. She also yells at Matt a lot, who often puts his head down and his tail between his legs. There’s a funny Thanos meme going around about it (lol). But hey, she aligns herself with Kingpin, revealing she really is a bad guy, so they got that right.
Speaking of, continuing from being emasculated in Hawkeye, for most of the series, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is a huge simp, he goes to counselling (Heather is the therapist, surprise!) and cries all the time. It’s revealed – another big surprise – that his wife is the better Kingpin. Things pick up in the last episode, but Kingpin turns off the grid and declares martial law, which the wokies (i.e. Deadline) love to think means that he’s Trump.
The cops also happen to be the bad guys as they work for Kingpin, which can be seen as being woke. However, I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad part of the story. Worth a mention is that Jon Bernthal was against coming back in Daredevil: Born Again, probably because it was woke, but Bernthal got involved, and I believe rewrote the lines for his character. He’s also now on board as a producer and is developing his own Punisher special. While he hasn’t specifically said it, Bernthal has been crystal clear that he wouldn’t be involved with the MCU if it were woke AF. We need more actors like him to get involved.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 is in the works and is confirmed to be released next year. Season 1 is available on Disney+.
