Gird yourself for a heavy(…) dose of the Kingpin in the new Daredevil trailer!

I’m rather indifferent to Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and his costumed alter-ego. I hope he does well in the role, and hope that he’s able to shoulder the burden that is the first entry in Marvel’s Netflix wing. But the real excitement here, at least from this corner, comes from Vincent D’Onofrio’s turn as the Kingpin. Get your popcorn ready.

D’Onofrio was great for years on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, a show that could easily have become rote procedural formula, but became more than the sum of its parts thanks to his turn as NYPD Detective Bobby Goren. There was always a great deal of subtlety in his performance, tilts of the head and shifts of the eyes and inflections of the voice, as he became a squirrelly crime-solving virtuoso. The crescendo conclusion of every episode, when Goren finally broke the crook, worked more often than not, despite the utter predictability of this denouement. It’s going to be interesting to see what he brings to Wilson Fisk — and the other side of the law.