(Warning: This article contains spoilers for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and the season finale of “Hawkeye.”)
After a couple years of pleas from fans, Netflix’s MCU-adjacent corner has finally been brought properly into Marvel’s vast cinematic universe. But the finale of “Hawkeye” makes it appear — or should we say, sound — as if at least one of those reprisals will be short-lived.
Vincent D’Onofrio revived his role as crime boss Wilson Fisk aka The Kingpin from “Daredevil” and was revealed to be the one pulling the strings behind many of the Disney+ series events, including the assassination attempt on Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner). But at the end of “Hawkeye” it certainly appeared as if Maya (Alaqua Cox) got her revenge on her “uncle” for orchestrating the murder of her father, who was killed by Barton during his vigilante days as Ronin. After pointing a gun at Fisk, the camera cuts away and we hear a loud gunshot.
But if you’ve seen any comic book TV show, you know that if you don’t see the dead body, you shouldn’t automatically assume that character died. TheWrap spoke to D’Onofrio about bringing Fisk back to life and, while he didn’t come anywhere close to confirming Fisk is still alive, he admitted he hopes he gets the play the character again.
“I hope so. I like this character. I really want to,” he said. That doesn’t exactly sound like someone who believes his character’s gone.
Marvel fans were very quick to point out that the scene from “Hawkeye” almost perfectly mirrored one from the comics, in which Maya shoots Fisk in the face after finding out he was behind her father’s murder. In the comics, it’s revealed that she only shot Fisk in the eye and temporarily blinded him. Cox is set to reprise her role as Maya in her own Disney+ series, “Echo.”
D’Onofrio, who was first teased in a grainy photo during last week’s penultimate episode of “Hawkeye” is the second actor to bring back his character from one of the Marvel TV-produced Netflix series that ran between 2015-2019. Charlie Cox appeared in a brief role as Daredevil himself, aka Matt Murdock, in “Spider-Man: No Way Home” as Peter Parker’s lawyer.
“I actually didn’t think that I would come back. You get used to, being an actor, leaving parts behind. I have supported the ‘Daredevil’ fans throughout the years. I continue to hope to play the character more,” D’Onofrio said. “When I heard [Marvel boss Kevin Feige] had asked my representatives for my phone number, I knew he was gonna say something to me. I had no idea what. I was just so excited.”
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D’Onofrio also confirmed that the canon established in the Netflix series will be honored now that the characters are back under Marvel Studios’ control.
“One of the things that we all were clear about — the writers, producers and the directors — was that he was going to be the same guy, since we weren’t changing the canon of ‘Daredevil.’ We were trying to connect as many of the dots as we could,” he said. “I’m adamant about his emotional life, and that I play him through this emotional life that he has. And everybody was very excited about that and wanting to do the same. There are things that are different, he is physically stronger. And he can take more physical abuse than before, but he is emotionally he’s the same character.”
In the “Hawkeye” finale, Fisk was able to survive an arrow to the chest, getting hit by a car and an exploding arrow. “That’s more like the comic book version. He used to fling people about pretty often,” D’Onofrio said.