Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket, Men in Black) garnered both popular and critical acclaim for his turn as ruthless business mogul Wilson G. Fisk A.K.A. Kingpin in the Netflix superhero series Daredevil, and the one-time Emmy nominee is reportedly discussing the possibility of reprising the role for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as reported by We Got This Covered. It has been over two years since Daredevil was officially cancelled at Netflix, but with the Disney-owned MCU’s recent expansion into television, We Got This Covered posits that Kingpin’s appearance in the franchise has never been more likely: “The characters of Daredevil will return, and probably sooner rather than later.”
Some have questions about how the merciless brutality of D’Onofrio’s character would mesh with the all-ages approachability of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After all, Netflix’s Daredevil was one of Marvel’s most gritty media properties, and that was reportedly what drew the actor to the project, Comic Book reports. According to D’Onofrio, reading scene from the fourth episode where Kingpin decapitates an adversary with the aid of a car door helped to quell his doubts about how his acting style would fit into a superhero show: “My first reaction was, ‘Okay, this is the show I thought it was gonna be… We are really gonna go for it.’ And I checked with everybody to make sure that I wasn’t gonna show up and they they were gonna, like, soften it up. And everybody’s like, ‘Hell no, this is it. We’re going all the way…’ My reaction was, ‘Oh, this is good,'” via Comic Book.
D’Onofrio recently posted on his Twitter account to congratulate his frequent collaborator Ethan Hawke (Boyhood, Dead Poets Society) on his own entrance into the Marvel Cinematic Universe via the upcoming streaming series Moon Knight.
Throughout their careers, the two men’s paths have crossed on numerous occasions, starting in 1998, when they worked under the direction of Richard Linklater (Slacker, School of Rock) playing brothers in the crime film The Newton Boys. Over decade later, Hawke and D’Onofrio shared scenes in Staten Island, another crime flick. Both made appearances in the 2012 horror film Sinister as well. The men shared poster-level billing with MCU player Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) when they all starred in the 2016 western The Magnificent Seven. D’Onofrio’s sophomore directorial effort The Kid, also a western, actually had Hawke playing the titular role of Wild West outlaw Billy The Kid.
In an interview on the podcast Armchair Expert, Hawke heaped unambiguous praise on D’Onofrio’s skillful portrayal of Detective Robert Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent. “Most of the people who win these prizes are working with a… Pulitzer Prize-winning screenwriter, they’ve got the best musicians scoring. If you weren’t good in those movies, you suck. But if you watch Criminal Intent every night? Like, this is an Academy-winning performance. There’s no lighting. There’s no writing. There’s no plot. And this guy is fucking brilliant,” Hawke proclaimed, via Armchair Expert.