Michael Gandolfini joins the MCU's Daredevil: Born Again

Michael Gandolfini (The Many Saints Of Newark) is moving from the mean streets of New Jersey to a whole new world of crime in Hell’s Kitchen. The Offer actor has been cast in a major role in Disney+’s upcoming MCU series Daredevil: Born Again, starring beside Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, per Deadline.

The new series, written and executive produced by Matt Corman and Chris Ord (Covert Affairs), will see the return of Cox as Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, a lawyer by day and vigilante by night who has already made some pit stops recently in the MCU’s Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. Joining him from the canceled 2015 Netflix series is D’Onofrio’s mob boss villain Kingpin, who reprised his role in last year’s Disney+ series Hawkeye.

As Deadline outlines, Gandolfini’s character in the Marvel series is “being kept under wraps,” so who he’ll play in the world of Hell’s Kitchen remains a mystery for now. But if we were to try our hand out at guessing (which tends to be pretty hit-or-miss with these MCU castings), Gandolfini would fit into the role of Richard Fisk, Kingpin’s son who becomes obsessed with taking on his father’s moniker in the comics. Or maybe he’s just a brand new character made for the MCU (somewhat unlikely)—who knows!

Gandolfini’s breakout role came in 2021's The Many Saints Of Newark, where he portrayed a younger version of Tony Soprano from the HBO series The Sopranos, a role made famous by his late father James Gandolfini. His previous roles include Joe and Anthony Russo’s Cherry, as well as HBO’s The Deuce. He’ll next be taking on whatever psychological horrors Ari Aster is crafting in the A24 film Disappointment Blvd., starring alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Nathan Lane, and Patti LuPone.

We’ll have to wait and see whether Gandolfini is a friend or foe of Daredevil when Daredevil: Born Again releases in the spring of 2024.