Episode three of Hawkeye introduced us to the mysterious “uncle” of series antagonist Maya Lopez, and since then fans have speculated as to who this mystery man may be. Today, during the fifth episode of the series, fans were delighted to see their theories come true. Vincent D’Onofrio (Jurassic World, Daredevil) returned to play Wilson Fisk AKA The Kingpin.
Midway through episode 5 titled “Ronin”, we see Florence Pugh’s (Black Widow, Little Women) character, Yelena Belova, confess to Hailee Steinfeld’s (Pitch Perfect 2, Bumblebee) character, Kate Bishop, that she was hired to kill Hawkeye by her own mother. To prove this, Yelena sends Kate an image of her mother standing next to none other than the Kingpin of crime himself. D’Onofrio’s identity as Fisk is further confirmed by Hawkeye stating that Fisk is who he has been worried about this entire time.
D’Onofrio first appeared as Fisk in 2018 during season one of Daredevil on Netflix. He would continue to play the character till the show’s third and final season. Despite D’Onofrio’s popular performance, and other highlights of the show, Daredevil was cancelled along with the other Marvel shows on the platform.
Rumors of D’Onofrio’s appearance in the show have been floating around fan forums since the casting of newcomer Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez. The theories were made because in the Marvel comics universe, Lopez is actually the adopted daughter of Fisk.
“I do take it as a compliment. I so badly want to play that character again,” D’Onofrio said about the rumors in an interview with ScreenRant. “I love that character. I just have to wait for Marvel to ask me.”
Wilson Fisk first appeared in the comics in Amazing Spider-Man issue 50 in 1967 and was depicted as the overlord (or kingpin) of crime in New York City; himself having a hand in any and all criminal activities in the city. Kingpin would later become primarily a villain for Daredevil and not the web slinger.
D’Onofrio is not the only person to take on this character. Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) was the voice of Kingpin in the award-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse. The late Michael-Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile, Armageddon) also played the character in the not-so critically-acclaimed 2003 Daredevil movie.
Episode five of Hawkeye is on Disney Plus today, and the final episode will premiere on the platform on Dec. 22nd.