With yesterday’s finale of “Hawkeye” in the books, we’ve seen the latest Marvel Studios streaming series come to an end. And boy, there are fireworks to be found in that episode, as fans learn more about the fallout of Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) arriving in New York City and what it means for the (not at all) surprising arrival of Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), who was last seen in the Netflix “Daredevil” series a couple of years back. And in a new interview with EW, D’Onofrio talks about returning to the MCU and whether or not this Kingpin is the same Kingpin fans discovered in “Daredevil.”
For those keeping track, “Hawkeye” ends with the reveal that Kingpin has been the big bad behind the scenes connecting both the Echo (Alaqua Cox)/Ronin story and the Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga) story. And in the episode, we get tons of Kingpin action, both the character being super creepy and scary, hulking over his employees and enemies, as well as him beating the hell out of Kate Bishop. It’s a big re-introduction of the character, for sure. And it’s a job that D’Onofrio didn’t think was ever going to come his way again.
“I was surprised,” admitted D’Onofrio about returning as Kingpin. “I had held out hope that ‘Daredevil’ would somehow survive even after we stopped, but that ended quickly. But I always kept supporting the fans and their excitement about ‘Daredevil,’ and also their excitement about my character. But you know, I never really thought it was going to happen, so it was obviously a pleasant surprise that ‘Hawkeye’ was one of the things that Kevin wanted me to do. It’s amazing.”
But with the introduction of Kingpin and the surprise appearance of Charlie Cox in “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” we’ve seen two “Daredevil” actors get introduced into the MCU over the past week. So this means “Daredevil” is canon in the MCU right? Well, not so fast. You see, the earlier Marvel TV series, such as the various ones on Netflix, was produced by Marvel Television, a completely different studio than Marvel Studios. So, this has led to some confusion about whether or not Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is now retroactively adding those shows to the MCU or if he’s just cherry-picking actors/characters from those shows to show up in the proper Marvel Cinematic Universe?
For D’Onofrio, he’s playing the character as if it’s the exact same one fans learned to love and fear in “Daredevil.”
“It’s a tough character to play in that it’s based on a lot of his pain from his childhood,” explained D’Onofrio. “Once I reconnected to the way I played him [on ‘Daredevil’], what the events in his life were, and attached myself to the emotional aspects of the character, then it was fine, I was good to go. I know that we were picking up with the same guy. It’s tough to connect all the dots, but they connected as many as they could and that he had lost a bit of his power because of the Blip. But the idea [was] to bring him into ‘Hawkeye,’ to have him be that same character that he was in the earlier show, and play him like that.”
But in the final moments of “Hawkeye,” the fate of Kingpin is unclear. We see Echo point a gun at his face, and as the camera pans towards the sky, we hear a gunshot. Now, it’s important to know that the version of Kingpin that is shown in Hawkeye clearly has superhuman strength and endurance, so maybe he is going to survive a shot to the face? Perhaps Echo couldn’t go through with it and didn’t actually shoot him, just aiming away at the last second to scare him? Sounds like good fodder to be explored in the upcoming “Echo” Disney+ streaming series, right? Well, if Kingpin is returning, D’Onofrio isn’t aware of it, yet. Or maybe he’s just keeping yet another Marvel secret?
“I can only hope that they stay open. That would be great,” said the actor about the option to return again. “That’s what I want, and I think that’s what the fans want too. For me to say whether that’s going to happen or not, it’s impossible to know for sure.”
“Hawkeye” is streaming now on Disney+. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is in theaters now. And “Echo” doesn’t yet have a release date.