Marvel Studios finished up its last Disney+ series of the year with Hawkeye, and with it came the proper re-introduction of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk. The character was first seen in Netflix’s Daredevil and hadn't appeared since the show was canceled. Now, fans can rest happy knowing that the Kingpin, and the man behind him, have a proper place in the MCU.
As whispers started arising that the character would be returning, fans immediately got excited. Not many villains in the comic book movie sphere make that kind of impact, but his Kingpin of crime certainly did.
Even his onscreen rival, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock, had similar rumors, but with his appearance starting in Spider-Man: No Way Home and potentially continuing into projects like She-Hulk and Echo. With Donofrio’s return now being solidified, hopefully, the same will occur for the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
With the character’s first proper MCU appearance, the actor behind the cane commented how the big events of Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame changed his villain.
The Kingpin & The Blip
This week’s Hawkeye finale saw the return of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin to the MCU, who hasn’t been seen since the cancelation of Netflix’s Daredevil.
Fans may have noticed that the character is a little more power-hungry than usual. In an interview with CinemaBlend, the actor connected that to “the Blip,” an event which caused him to “[lose] the power he had in Daredevil, and he wants it back:”
“It was always established to me that it's after the Blip and that he has lost the power that he had in Daredevil, and he wants it back. … In Hawkeye, he considers that he's lost a bit of the control of his city, and he wants his city back.”
Kingpin Needs To Regain His Power
There are two observations to point out. The first is how this doesn’t confirm Kingpin’s snapped status during The Blip—just how because of those events, he had lost some of the power of the city that he once had.
While on the surface, it would make perfect sense for him to have dusted away, seeing as it would explain a loss of power that Fisk is eager to take back. However, a plot point in Hawkeye is how Fisk wanted Maya’s father dead, which is what the whole Ronin attack was and occurred during those five years. So Kingpin more than likely survived Thanos’ population cull.
The second observation is how this also doesn’t say anything concrete about the canonicity of his former show, Daredevil. In the same article, when discussing the canon between the two, he specifically noted that “… there’s dots that can’t be connected.” Fans still have a non-answer on that front, even though it certainly seems to be leaning toward separation.
At the least, D’Onofrio is reassuring fans that, canon or not, they should still expect the same character in spirit. It will feel as if they are watching the same terrifying monster that everyone loved so much back on Netflix—even if events don’t line up.
Hawkeye is now streaming in its entirety, exclusively on Disney+.
