The fourth live-action Marvel/Disney+ series has come and gone and with it, a very big and not-so-well-kept secret is now out. The Kingpin’s back baby! Or is he?
Spoilers for Hawkeye season finale below!
If you were eagerly anticipating Vincent D’Onofrio’s return as the big bad man, you may have had a bit of a shock when it appeared at the end that his young protege Maya Lopez fired a gun at him, potentially killing him in revenge for her father’s murder. But wouldn’t that be completely crazy for Marvel to do that after all the fan hype about Charlie Cox returning as Matt Murdock, as well as Kingpin’s return? Would they really just take him out like that?
No, I don’t believe they would take him out like that. It makes no sense, especially when you think about the fact that Echo has a show of her own planned which will likely also involve Daredevil. Kingpin’s a significant villain for both characters, certainly, so his presence should be felt in the series. Daredevil appearing in Echo, or not, it seems only natural that Maya’s “Uncle” would have a part in Echo’s show given their deep personal comic book history.
What’s most interesting to me about this apparent untimely and gruesome ending scene for Wilson Fisk, is that this ending is very different from what was originally planned. From what I’ve heard, a lot of Kingpin was added in the final battle (including Eleanor hitting him with a car) in reshoots. At that point, rumors were swirling about D’Onofrio’s return as well as Charlie Cox in Spider-Man: No Way Home, so they may have decided to go ahead and take advantage of the hype by increasing Kingpin’s presence in Hawkeye’s finale.
In addition, and here’s where my exclusive comes in, there was an end-credit scene filmed where Clint sent Kingpin the Ronin sword along with a warning to stay away from Kate and his family. This, if you’ve watched the finale episode that came out today, was cut from the finale. Hopefully, we’ll get to see that in a deleted scene someday soon.
I believe, however, this end credit scene, cut or not, is a good indicator that yes, Vincent D’Onofrio and Kingpin will be back for more. In addition, of course, in the comics, Maya does shoot Wilson Fisk when she discovers the truth about her father’s murder, and Fisk does survive that. The Powers that Be likely preferred to set up more of a cliffhanger for the fans instead of what they had filmed previously, and with the greenlighting of Echo, give fans more of a call back to the comics to hint at what’s to come there.
So as we all anxiously and expectantly wait to see what happens in the Echo series, I think we can expect to see Kingpin return with a vengeance. I expect Uncle Wilson will not be as forgiving towards Maya from now on.
