Two Marvel Legends Made Surprise TV Debuts 37 Years Ago — Long Before the MCU

If you came to Daredevil through the Netflix years and now Disney+, it can feel like Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio have always been the blueprint. They are now. But the path to their versions of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk is a lot messier, and yes, it includes a forgotten Hulk TV movie from 1989 and that Ben Affleck film everyone likes to argue about.

Why Cox and D'Onofrio own these roles

Cox set a standard on Netflix that the MCU mostly avoided at the time: a hero who is actually messy, principled, and conflicted without turning into a quip machine. D'Onofrio, meanwhile, gave us a Fisk who is genuinely scary and not just a big boss fight. After Marvel Television got folded into Marvel Studios, both actors re-entered the MCU carefully, one cameo at a time, until Daredevil: Born Again locked them in.

Season 2 of Born Again blows the doors open a bit more, pulling Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) back into the mix as part of the pushback against Mayor Fisk. Season 3 is already confirmed to bring back Luke Cage (Mike Colter) and Danny Rand (Finn Jones). At this point, Cox and D'Onofrio are the definitive live-action versions of their characters. They just weren’t the first ones to try.

Before Netflix: the rocky attempts

The 2003 movie everyone remembers (for better or worse)

Mark Steven Johnson wrote and directed the 2003 Daredevil, with Ben Affleck in the suit. It took a beating from critics and never found the audience the studio clearly hoped for. Michael Clarke Duncan played Fisk, and while he brought presence, the take split fans and never quite hit that ice-cold, buttoned-down menace the character lives on in the comics. And that movie? It wasn’t even the first live-action pairing of Daredevil and Kingpin.

The actual first: Daredevil shows up in a Hulk TV movie

Roll back to May 7, 1989. NBC aired The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, the second of three TV movies that continued the CBS series The Incredible Hulk (which ran from 1977 to 1982). Bill Bixby directed and returned as perpetually-on-the-run Dr. David Banner, with Lou Ferrigno back as the Hulk. The movie keeps the old show’s continuity, but drops Banner into an unnamed city run by crime boss Wilson Fisk, here played by John Rhys-Davies.

The setup is very late-80s TV: Banner steps in during an assault on a subway, hulks out in the scuffle, and somehow ends up arrested for the very crime he tried to stop. Enter blind defense attorney Matt Murdock (Rex Smith) — who moonlights as Daredevil. Using his heightened senses, Murdock realizes Banner is telling the truth, takes the case, eventually unmasks himself to Banner, and teams up to bring down Fisk’s operation in the final act.

The almost-Daredevil series that didn’t happen

Writer Gerald Di Pego built Trial as a backdoor pilot for an NBC Daredevil show. It never went forward, partly thanks to creative choices that stirred up pushback even then. The big one: Daredevil’s suit is an all-black outfit with no visible eye holes — a far cry from the comic-book red. Stan Lee publicly blasted that decision.

'The all-black suit basically told every mugger: this guy is blind.'

Rhys-Davies also took the Fisk role not realizing the Kingpin is traditionally bald and clean-shaven. He even offered to shave, but the production didn’t have the resources to sell the look properly — no convincing bald skullcap, no go — so Fisk spends the entire movie with a full head of hair. Between that and the suit, the would-be pilot never got its series order.

How it all lines up

• 1989: The Trial of the Incredible Hulk airs on NBC, directed by and starring Bill Bixby as David Banner, with Lou Ferrigno returning as Hulk; Rex Smith debuts as Matt Murdock/Daredevil; John Rhys-Davies plays Wilson Fisk; designed as a Daredevil backdoor pilot that doesn’t go to series.
• 2003: Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil hits theaters with Ben Affleck as Matt and Michael Clarke Duncan as Fisk; critics pan it, audiences are lukewarm, and the character goes dormant again.
• 2015: Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio arrive on Netflix, resetting the bar for both characters; this becomes the version fans rally around.
• Now: Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is streaming on Disney+, folding Jessica Jones into the resistance against Mayor Fisk; Season 3 is confirmed to bring back Luke Cage and Danny Rand.

So yes, Cox and D'Onofrio are the keepers of the flame now. But decades before that hallway fight made you a believer, Daredevil was trading notes with David Banner on network TV while Kingpin rocked a full head of hair. If you’ve never seen The Trial of the Incredible Hulk, it’s a fascinating time capsule — weird choices, scrappy ambition, and the first time Daredevil and Fisk crashed into live action together.