Daredevil: Born Again actor Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays Kingpin in the series, responded to accusations that the show is woke.
Following the conclusion of the show, X user Brandon S shared his thoughts saying, “Now that Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson with Dario have come out and basically said that they are using Daredevil as an anti conservative and cop show, I have a feeling Marvel Studios and Disney+ are going to double down on woke season 2.
Sad they took their best product and decided to attack half of America,” he added. “Vincent D’Onofrio, 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.”
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In a now-deleted post, D’Onofrio responded, “This is absolute nonsense. We are not doubling down on any such thing. This states is just not so. If there was any truth to it i think i would know.”
“We are telling Daredevil stories,” he added. “We are not pushing any agenda other than making a Kick ass super hero drama.”
Brandon S. retorted by sharing a review from Deadline describing the series as “fearless and Trump 2.0 timely.” In fact, the review shares that there are multiple levels where the show is a political allegory. It notes, “With terms like “resist” and “retribution” employed in the long-awaited and creatively retooled Charlie Cox-led Born Again, the first Daredevil series since 2018 lines up to the real America of 2025 on a number of levels. Certainly, with the City Hall-aspiring Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) promising five boroughs voters to “keep our streets safe” to grab absolute power to abuse for riches, there is a lot of MAGA here, as well as a lot of creativity and history.”
He posted, “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.”
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D’Onofrio responded, “Maybe you should dive into the Daredevil Canon. Marvel created all that you speak of in terms of our show. A play on morality, the definition of good, bad, the pull between what God may have planned for us and what is happening for real in the life of Daredevil and Fisk.”
Another user made it clear that D’Onofrio was unwillingly to draw the allegorical comparisons. The user wrote, “Your unwillingness to draw the allegorical parallels is on you. There’s no way the writers are sitting there dumbfounded with similarities, they absolutely knew. They could have leaned into it, they could have leaned away from it. They leaned into it.”
D’Onofrio responded, “Fisk created & revealed by Marvel in 1967 i believe. Yet you continue to think you are correct. If you're saying it's uncanny how certain aspects can compare. Fine. Yet if you're saying that we are writing & playing Fisk to promote woke. Then you're straight up WRONG. No way”
In another response to this user, D’Onofrio wrote, “I wish we could find a middle ground. If you knew me you'd know thats my style. Middle ground. You don't seem to want a real discussion where you might actually be enlightened. I am disappointing we can't do that. I prefer people in my life, left or right that recognize that.”
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Like D’Onofrio showrunner Dario Scardapane has attempted to distance himself from the show being an allegory for Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. He was asked by IGN at the beginning of March, “You can’t help but see parallels between Fisk running for mayor and what’s going on in the world. How much was that in your mind when you guys were prepping?”
He answered, “None. That’s the crazy thing. THis is picking up Charles Soule’s Mayor Fisk storyling that was written about 10 years ago, 2016. So that was probably in the zeitgeist then. I inherited some of that storyline, but for me in first season and second season, which is part one, part two, it is ‘rise of a tyrant’ whether that’s applying to now, I’m actually kind of not in that space. I’m in ‘What if Wilson Fisk, criminal, rose to power as mayor.’ And yeah, sometimes we’re feeling a little like prescient, but all of this stuff was written long before the events have happened. So I don’t really know. Is it just something that’s in the air or is it-. It’s an archetypal story that’s happened many, many times over the centuries.”
However, even the left wing Popverse notes that the comic book the show loosely adapts was published in 2017 after Trump won his first election. And it’s abundantly clear the comic was created as an allegory for Trump’s first election as President of the United States.
And as pop culture critic Gary Buechler noted during his review of the show, D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is indeed an allegory for President Trump. He also goes on to explain how the show is quintessential MSheU with Matt Murdock getting constantly lectured by women and even Kingpin being replaced by his wife as the leader of the New York crime families and she does a better job than he does.
Furthermore, he also notes that Marvel does what Marvel does and pushes its DEI agenda by replacing Foggy Nelson and Karen Page. Not to mention race swapping certain characters.
Buechler also notes that it did indeed use the Punisher as an allegory for the summer of love, “They really leaned into the Punisher’s skull controversy particularly from the summer of love so they can go full ACAB and have Punisher lecture the bad cops and call them clowns.”
Finally, he noted the show has all the woke trappings Marvel Studios has pushed for the better half of the last decade, “Intersectional feminism, identity politics, and TDS.”
What do you make of D’Onofrio’s response?
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Maybe D’Onofrio believes what he's saying and he doesn't realise the message that's being pushed with the show. It is woke slop and I'm not wasting my time with it.
Like all… thespians, he is but a hollow shell, whose life is filled by the thoughts of others. He’s simply a marionette, dancing along to others that have ahold of the strings.