Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Kingpin

  • How the Rules of the MCU’s Multiverse Allow for Daredevil and Kingpin to Meet Again…For the First Time…For the Last Time

    How the Rules of the MCU’s Multiverse Allow for Daredevil and Kingpin to Meet Again…For the First Time…For the Last Time

    A half-dozen Lokis, including a woman, an old man, a child, one that looks just like Tom Hiddleston, and an alligator. Four Doctors Strange, including a zombie with a ponytail. Three Spider-Men. Three Peggy Carters. Two Kangs so far, including one referred to as a “warrior”, with more to come. Two Gamoras. Two Nebulas. Two Thanoses. Two Christine Palmers. And two Mordos and two Maria Rambeaus who hang out with three guys who have never before been seen in the MCU’s 616-universe. The Marvel Cinematic Multiverse is full of Variants and is sure to see more enter it as the Multiverse Saga continues over the next 4 years. So why is it, that in this vast multiverse, Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk are expected to be the genuine Netflix articles when probability would dictate they probably aren’t?

    The rules of the Multiverse, as created by Michael Waldron and explained in Loki by Miss Minutes, allow for a tremendous amount of room in the creation of Variants. Nearly any event, no matter how great or small, from “creating an uprising” to just being “late for work” causes a Nexus Event which creates a branch from the Sacred Timeline. As Miss Minutes explained, one Nexus Event could “branch off into madness” creating an almost infinite number of Variants and the potential for a multiversal war. That multiversal war is coming in Avengers: Secret Wars, but it’s the more mundane sort of multiversal madness that’s relevant here. Given the relative ease with which a Variant can be created and the fact that the death of He Who Remains allowed the multiverse to branch off into madness, it’s statistically more likely that the Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk who are on track to meet in Echo are Variants of the ones who appeared in the Netflix Defenders-verse shows.

    In addition to the relative ease with which the MCU can explain away the Variant nature of the two characters, according to Charlie Cox, it seems like that is the plan. Cox has been clear that he and Kevin Feige think of Daredevil: Born Again as Season 1, not Season 4, and recently called it “a whole new deal” that gave the studio a chance to start from scratch in some instances.

    What’s great about that is that we potentially get to tell some of the stories over and over again, in the same way that they do in the comics. Every now and then they start back in the beginning of Murdock’s journey as a little boy and they tell the whole origin story again, so maybe we’ll get to do that. I don’t know.

    Charlie Cox

    Herein lies the brilliance inherent in the simplicity of the multiversal rules. The MCU’s Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk only need to be a little different from their Netflix counterparts in order to allow Feige, the Marvel Studios Parliament, and the creative teams of Echo and Daredevil: Born Again to keep much of what fans loved about the characters they met on Daredevil while also telling their MCU stories on their terms. And they never have to tell anyone how it happened. Just simply let it unfold on-screen.

    An infinite multiverse means infinite possible Variants of the characters. That means a Matt Murdock who can see, a Kingpin who never killed his father and any other version you can imagine exists somewhere. But in order for Marvel Studios to tell their version of the story, they don’t have to erase all those key points in the development of the character. Vincent D’Onofrio has spoken at length about how he’s playing Fisk as the same character and that makes perfect sense because all of the tragedy and abuse that he suffered when he “was a boy” can still be the backstory for the character.

    I mean, obviously, my character in Hawkeye is physically stronger and can take a lot more physical abuse. But my approach to him is exactly the same approach that I did on Daredevil. He is an emotional human being, he is a child and a monster simultaneously. The same things that are going on inside me when I’m playing the character, the events that I use, whether the joyful ones or sad ones or frustrating ones or angry ones, the events that I use from my life are the same ones that I used in Daredevil that I used to portray Fisk. So it’s connected, for sure. In my mind, for sure.

    Vincent D’Onofrio

    The rules of the multiverse absolutely allow for everything D’Onofrio said about the Fisk that showed up in Hawkeye to be true AND for the character to be different from the Defenders-verse character. How simple is it? Incredibly simple. If being late for work can create a Nexus Event and a new branch of the multiverse, any number of events could be used to explain how a Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk who are nearly identical to the ones from Daredevil are co-existing in the MCU’s Hell’s Kitchen but have never met one another, much less become archenemies. Why would they do this? To give the MCU’s creatives a chance to tell the story of these two characters on their own terms rather than be forced to accept someone else’s interpretation. As Cox explained, it gives them the opportunity to retell stories as often happens in the comics when new authors take over.

    What would this mean for the MCU? It would mean that to audiences, the characters would seem to be exactly the same, only a little different. Ketchup and mustard Daredevil seems to be, for the most part, the same as black mask Daredevil, except he’s a little different. His fighting style isn’t quite the same, he’s a bit more flippy and he doesn’t seem to hate being alive and is rather quite the ladies’ man. Hawaiin shirt Kingpin seems to be, for the most part, the same as stare-at-the-wall Fisk, except he’s a little different. He works out of a garage in relative anonymity and seems to be a walking tank.

    Using Variants provides the people who worked on Echo and are working on Daredevil: Born Again a tremendous amount of creative freedom. You like the way the story with Stick training Matt as a boy worked? Keep it. It happened before the Nexus Event. You don’t like the fact that Ben Urich is dead? Get rid of it. It happened after the Nexus Event that created this MCU Variant Daredevil. Characters can seemingly be brought back from the dead without ever having died. Don’t like the way the Hand storyline played out in Daredevil? Retell it. It happened after the Nexus Event that created this Variant. Giving the writers working on Echo and Daredevil: Born Again that type of flexibility will ultimately allow for a better final product. There are some hoops to jump through to ensure the chosen point for the Nexus Event follows continuity (so you don’t go the route of Fox’s X-Men films) but it can be done.

    At the end of the day, if fans can accept alligator Loki and are looking forward to seeing Jonathan Majors mold himself into multiple versions of Kang, it doesn’t seem as though it’s asking much to accept that in an infinite multiverse, other versions of their favorite characters can and do exist. Is this a definitive statement that these characters are NOT the Defenders-verse ones? Of course not. Only Marvel Studios can make that statement; however, they are better served in never making it, allowing the debate around the characters to carry on until their decision is revealed on screen, whether large or small.

    You want to believe these guys are your guys? Go for it, probability be damned. You want to believe these guys are Variants? Go for it, the evidence suggests they are. At the end of the day, these are stories meant to be enjoyed by audiences and much of that is determined by what you carry with you in your own mind and if you believe in it strongly enough, not even the multiverse can take it away from you.

  • Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio Seemingly Confirmed for ‘Echo’

    Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio Seemingly Confirmed for ‘Echo’

    Alongside Kate Bishop, Echo was one of the characters introduced by Hawkeye into the MCU. Played by Alaqua Cox, the character is slated for a self-titled spin-off in the near future. Information on the show has been kept under wraps but a new listing indicates that there are some major MCU appearances waiting to happen in the show. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio are two of the names listed on the resume of the show’s costume designer Stacy Caballero.

    Those two names shouldn’t come as a surprise given their character’s history in the comics. With the way Wilson Fisk’s stint in Hawkeye abruptly ended at the hands of Maya Lopez, it makes sense to see the character make a return. As for Daredevil, where there’s Wilson Fisk, there’s Matt Murdock.

    This isn’t the first time some key information has been accidentally revealed through a personnel’s resume. Avengers: Endgame was infamously listed on the film’s cinematographer’s online resume which fans thought dubious at the time of the leak. Of course, there’s a slim chance this could be conjecture on Caballero’s part but all evidence points otherwise.

    Source: Cinegeek

  • ‘Hawkeye’ Finale’s BIG “Death” Explained

    ‘Hawkeye’ Finale’s BIG “Death” Explained

    Marvel fans waited patiently to see Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin make a big splash in Hawkeye and their patience paid off in the season finale. Wilson Fisk proved to be a major physical threat and pretty damn hard to kill. He shrugged off an arrow to the chest, showed almost no ill effects to being hit by a car and was able to walk away from an explosion that would have left a normal person in pieces. His reward for all that? Being shot at point-blank range by Maya Lopez at the end of the episode. Is it over for the Kingpin? Did Marvel Studios bring D’Onofrio back simply to kill him off? Absolutely not.

    The final meeting between Lopez and Fisk in Episode 6 of Hawkeye was nearly identical to the way things went down between the two characters in David Mack’s Daredevil (Vol.2) , Issue #15, entitled “Vision”, published in 2001. In both cases, Maya took her revenge on Fisk by shooting him at point-blank range.

    As we saw in Hawkeye, the Fisk from the comics has also been notoriously hard to kill. In “Visions”, as Fisk is brought into the hospital following his encounter with Maya, readers learn that he was shot multiple times, including once in the head. The medical staff concludes that while he might live, they won’t be repair the damage done to his vision, leaving Kingpin blind. Of course, Fisk didn’t say blind forever and, after having surgery in Sweden to repair the damage done, he returned to his criminal ways.

    Given the combination of the way the event went down in the comics, the fact that Hawkeye’s Fisk was essentially indestructible and that we didn’t actually get a look at what transpired, it is reasonable to assume that Fisk is not dead and will be back in action in Echo.

  • ‘Hawkeye’ Directors on the Episode 5 Reveal and What to Expect from Kingpin

    ‘Hawkeye’ Directors on the Episode 5 Reveal and What to Expect from Kingpin

    After briefly teasing him in Episode 3, directing duo Bert and Bertie brought Kingpin into the mix in last week’s episode of Hawkeye. The big boss made a brief appearance in the episode’s closing moments when it was revealed that Kate’s mom was acquainted with him (it was also revealed that she hired Yelena to kill Clint, which seems like something we all should have known by then).

    Now that Kingpin, played once again by Vincent D’Onofrio, is actually in the picture, things look like they’ll get even more complicated for the Hawkeyes. Bert and Bertie talked to Insider about the reveal and what Kingpin’s presence means as the series prepares to wrap up in Episode 6.

    The “how” of the reveal, the grainy still frame from a video sent to Kate by Yelena, was a major point of conversation following the episode. Bertie addressed the intro and its fulfillment of all the theories fans shared online leading up to it:

    We kinda loved that it was this grainy, grainy impression of him and just confirms everyone’s suspicions because there have been lots of theories and that one’s been the outstanding theory about who this was. It’s Marvel. There’ve been different iterations of how Kingpin was revealed and this is the one that served the story, to hold him back to the very end of five.

    Bert expounded on Bertie’s thoughts, saying, “There’s something about the simplicity of the simple tease,” said Bert about revealing the connection between Kingpin and Eleanor before cutting away at the end of Episode 5. “It was an interesting twist that she was there in the room with Kingpin,” she added, before teasing that the “possibilities are endless.”

    Of course, now that Kingpin has finally been revealed, the big question is whether or not this character is the same one fans met on the the Netflix’s Daredevil. Turns out Marvel is in no hurry to answer that question for fans. When asked by Insider if Fisk was the same Fisk from Daredevil, Bertie replied, “Tune in on Wednesday for episode six.” And so we wait one more week.

    Source: Insider

  • Recast, Reboot, Retire or Reprise: What’s the Right Choice for Other Marvel Netflix Characters

    Recast, Reboot, Retire or Reprise: What’s the Right Choice for Other Marvel Netflix Characters

    With Vincent D’Onofrio and Charlie Cox reprising their respective roles as Kingpin and Matt Murdock this week and rumors swirling that other cast members from the Netflix Defenders-verse series might join them, we decided to take a look at who should come back and who should be left behind. Note that this is not all-encompassing and that there’s no real metric here, much less any consistency. Sometimes we want the actor and not the role; other times we want the role but not the actor; other times we want neither. To make it easy, we cast a verdict on each character: recast the role, reboot the character with the same actor, retire the character or have the same actor reprise the same role. Because the world is hard, sometimes had to pick more than one.

    The Big 4

    Each of the following actors led at least 2 seasons of a solo series on Netflix as well as popping up in either Defenders or another series.

    • Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle
      Whether or not Marvel Studios plans on using the Punisher in the near future is certainly a great topic for debate, but that debate is for another day. The topic here is whether or not Bernthal is the man for the job should they chose to bring the character into the MCU and, fortunately, there’s not much of debate to be had. As he almost always does, Bernthal inhabited the role of Castle in a way that many actors just couldn’t do. If we are going to see the Punisher again, it has to be Bernthal.
      Verdict: Reprise
    • Mike Colter as Luke Cage
      Colter is a case of Netflix missing the mark on why they cast the character. Colter is a solid actor. His work on CBS’s Evil has been excellent; however, he seems to be, in general, more comfortable in roles that require a more subdued persona and, to me, that’s just not Luke Cage. If Cage is coming back, the actor has to have BIG energy and charisma. The man lead the New Avengers and as much as I love Colter, I can’t see him effectively convincing Dr. Strange, Spider-Man and Captain Marvel that they should be following his orders.
      Verdict: Recast
    • Finn Jones as Danny Rand
      In a shared universe that includes Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi, there’s simply no place for Jones as the Iron Fist. While part of the problem with the character was the way he was written (Rand should be able to kick multiple asses all the time without ever having to use the Iron Fist), it’s impossible to give Jones a pass. He notably didn’t want to train and he’s also just not that great of an actor. If they give Rand another chance, it has to be with another actor.
      Verdict: Recast
    • Krysten Ritter as Jessica Jones
      Ritter’s situation is nearly the opposite of Colter’s in that the role of Jones fits her specific talents incredibly well. She looks the part and believably acts the part. While the series ended on a really poor note, Ritter’s time as the character would make it incredibly hard to imagine someone else in the role.
      Verdict: Reprise

    The Supporting Cast

    Simone Missick: Actress, Misty Knight in Netflix's Luke Cage | Howard Magazine

    Each of these characters played a major, supporting role in at least one season of the Defenders-verse series.

    • Vondie Curtis-Hall as Ben Urich
      After giving one of the best performances in Season 1 of Daredevil, Curtis-Hall didn’t get a chance to come back in the role because, well, Kingpin killed off the character. One of the best cases we can make for why the Netflix series should not be canon is so Curtis-Hall can return in a role that could expand beyond Daredevil’s stories and into the greater MCU.
      Verdict: Reprise
    • Rosario Dawson as Clarie Temple
      Keep the actress, ditch the character. Dawson is lights out in pretty much everything she does. Fans would love to see her jump into a bigger role like Mahershala Ali, who starred in Luke Cage, was able to do. Sorry, Claire, you stay behind, but bring Rosario into the MCU in a new role.
      Verdict: Retire
    • Scott Glenn as Stick
      One of the most unforgivable offenses made by Netflix over the course of their Defenders-verse series was their portrayal of the Hand. As Charles V. has said over and over again, “it’s really hard to screw up undead ninjas”, but they did it. If there’s one Daredevil-centric thing they could fix that would really spice up the whole MCU, it’s the Hand. And if the Hand is back, Stick should be back and if we’re getting Stick, it’s gotta be Scott Glenn.
      Verdict: Reboot
    • Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson
      Foggy is such an important part of the story of Matt Murdock that he absolutely must be involved in whatever stories are told going forward. Henson, however, never seemed the right fit and it’s almost certain a recast would land better with fans.
      Verdict: Recast
    • Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing
      Henwick was one of the brightest stars over the two seasons of Iron Fist. It was recently revealed that she had to pass on a role in Shang-Chi in order to land her role in the upcoming Matrix sequel, so obviously Marvel Studios is keen to work with her again. Henwick should absolutely be in the MCU. Whether that’s as Collen Wing or in another role is the question. Should she enter into the MCU in another role, that would really make it hard to consider Iron Fist “canon”, however. There is certainly a great Daughters of the Dragon story to be tole with Wing and Misty Kinght, should they want to keep Henwick in a version of the same role.
      Verdict: Reprise
    • Simone Missick as Misty Knight
      Speaking of…Missick was dynamite as Misty Knight, bringing some of the charisma to Luke Cage that Colter did not. Seeing Missick return as Knight, perhaps to team up with Sam Wilson as she has recently in the comics would be fantastic.
      Verdict: Reprise
    • Debra Ann Woll as Karen Page
      The vote here is no, but not for the reasons you might think. Woll was great as Karen Page. She was better than great. But as the story of Matt Murdock/Daredevil moves on, Marvel Studios would be wise to move away from the dark, Frank Miller inspired arcs that we integral to the Netflix series and adapt some other authors’ work. Modern day runs by Charles Soule and Mark Waid would top the list and wouldn’t require more of Page, a character whose continued story would only continue to drag Matt through Hell.
      Verdict: Retire
    • Elodie Yung as Elektra
      Yung checked all the boxes as Elektra: sleek, sexy, dangerous and talented. If they should choose to do another story with the Hand or just with Elektra, it’d be hard to find someone who both looked and played the part as well as Yung. Bring her back!
      Verdict: Reprise

    The Villains

    David Tennant Would Love Purple Man to be in an Avengers Movie
    • Wilson Bethel as Bullseye
      Bethel’s time as Bullseye was just getting started when the plug was pulled on the Defenders-verse. He gave a great portrayal and would be fully capable of holding his own on screen again with Cox. Bring back Bullseye and bring back Bethel.
      Verdict: Reprise
    • Alice Eve as Typhoid Mary
      Eve seemed like an out of place casting at the time, but she did fine in the role. Moving forward, however, it seems appropriate to have an entirely different version of the character and I don’t think anyone would be upset to see a new actress in the role.
      Verdict: Reboot and Recast
    • Bob Gunton as Leland Owlsley
      Love Gunton, but he was playing the comic book Owl in the same way that Fra Fee is playing comic book Kazi, which is to say not at all. There is certainly room for the Owl in this newly carved out corner of organized crime in the MCU, but not for this version. A younger actor and totally different characterization are in order.
      Verdict: Reboot and Recast
    • Theo Rossi as “Shades” Alvarez
      You might think that with all the characters and actors we didn’t include on the list, that Rossi is a surprise. He might be but his son, Victor Alvarez, could join the MCU’s other young heroes down the road. Rossi was creepy and slimy in the role. It would only be a bit part if he came back, so let’s see him back so we can get to his much more important offspring.
      Verdict: Reprise
    • David Tennant as Purple Man
      Tennant joins D’Onofrio and Ali in the trinity of great Defender-verse performances as villains. Ali has moved into the MCU in larger role as Blade. D’Onofrio is back. It might be a stretch to bring Purple Man into the current MCU unless the want to do the big Breakout arc from New Avengers, but getting Tennant back on board in that role or any other would be fantastic.
      Verdict: Reprise
    • Wil Traval as Nuke
      Nope. Give us a real Nuke in a future Cap movie. Scrap the actor and forget the character ever existed.
      Verdict: Reboot and Recast
    • Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna
      Zurer was fire as Vanessa. Both the actress and the character were amazing. However, the MCU’s Kingpin isn’t going to have 13 hours of time to tell a bunch of personal stories, so unfortunately, unless we get a Kingpin series, neither Zurer or Vanessa need to make the jump.
      Verdict: Retire

    Make sure to sound off in the comments on who you’d like to see reprise their roles and who you think should be left behind.

  • How Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin Could Be an All-New Variant of the Character

    How Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin Could Be an All-New Variant of the Character

    After an Episode 3 tease, the closing moments of Episode 5 of Hawkeye officially introduced Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin into the series as an acquaintance of Eleanor Bishop. Called by name by Clint Barton, Kingpin is the big boss behind the Tracksuits and the “Uncle” of Maya Lopez. Kingpin, as it turns out, is a lot of things but the one thing he is not is the same character from the three seasons of Netflix’s Daredevil.

    When he was first introduced in Season 1 of Daredevil in 2015, Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, was already a major player in the organized crime scene of New York City. Season 1 ended with Fisk in prison from where he began to suspect that Matt Murdock and Daredevil where one in the same. Fisk worked over agent Nadeem, found his way out of Ryker’s and was eventually freed and reunited with is love, Vanessa. The series wrapped following a major fight between Murdock and Fisk that ended with Fisk on his way to prison, again, his organization dismantled and Murdock having enough evidence to make sure Fisk would never see the light of day again, much less regain his status as Kingpin.

    The events of Daredevil Season 3 took place in 2018, shortly before the events of Avengers: Infinity War. We know this Fisk wasn’t Blipped and that at some point between 2018 and 2023, he was a big deal in organized crime in New York and known as Kingpin. While a reasonable argument could be made that Fisk was broken out of prison during that time, him moving around in the open in 2024 and continuing to operate as Kingpin would represent a complete and utter failure on the part of Matt Murdock. By the time Hawkeye takes place in 2024, even if Murdock had been Blipped, he surely could have brought forth enough evidence to get Fisk back behind bars. More to the point, if following the Blip, Fisk was still actively running crime in New York where the one man who could bury him was around (we don’t know if Murdock was Blipped, but we know he’s around at the same time) he’d be a pretty incompetent Kingpin of crime. If this Kingpin is the Netflix Kingpin, the MCU Daredevil is already a moron…and so is the MCU Kingpin.

    Of course fans of the Netflix character came out in droves today to point out just how much this Kingpin looks like the version who rocked the white suits in Daredevil. That version of the character was more of an all-white suit type of guy and, though it’s potato cam quality, that’s not they style of this all-new, all-different version of the character; the version we kind of saw today seemed to be more of an ascot-sporting, cane-wielding and quite possibly shade-of-purple pants wearing type of guy, much like the classic comic book version of the character. I’m not going to go back and rewatch all 39 episodes to make sure, but I don’t recall that Fisk being a fan of neckwear, which he certainly has as part of his ensemble here.

    On the topic of style, Daredevil’s Wilson Fisk was a big cuff link guy. As seen below, he owned two dozen or so pairs of the handy accessories but, as you might remember, fancied one particular pair that he picked off the corpse of his dead father.

    The first tease of this all-new, all-different version of Kingpin came in Episode 3 and, funny enough, they made sure to give us a look at this version’s cuff links.

    And, as it turns out, not only was he not wearing his favorite pair (who doesn’t love wearing stuff that reminds them of the day they murdered their dad with a hammer?), he wasn’t wearing any of those in his possession last time we saw him. If the creators of Hawkeye wanted to send a VERY clear message to the fans of the Netflix Daredevil series, those cuff links would have been on FULL display in that tease. They weren’t because this isn’t that guy.

    What Hawkeye has introduced is (as Loki taught us) a Variant of the character fans met in Daredevil. From what’s been revealed, Fisk didn’t seem to be returning to the “throne” during the Blip; it seems much more likely that he used that time to establish himself as the Kingpin by eliminating the remaining competition, including his best, good friend Willie Lopez. It’s important to note that it only benefits Marvel Studios to continue to obfuscate whether or not this Fisk and the Murdock that appears in Spider-Man: No Way Home are the same characters from the Netflix series. The hype, the discussion and debate only fan the flames of fandom. Maybe next week will deliver a clear answer, but don’t be surprised if the truth isn’t revealed until She-Hulk, or Echo, or never. But for now, there’s certainly enough evidence to rationally argue that Hawkeye has introduced a new version of a classic comic book character whose story is JUST getting started.

  • Netflix ‘Daredevil’ Showrunner on Series Status as MCU Canon

    Netflix ‘Daredevil’ Showrunner on Series Status as MCU Canon

    Earlier this week, Marvel Studios One-Above-All, Kevin Feige, confirmed that Charlie Cox, who portrayed Matt Murdock and Daredevil over 3 seasons of the Netflix series, Daredevil, would be portraying the same character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cox will join Daredevil co-star Vincent D’Onofrio, who first appeared in the briefest of cameos in Episode 3 of Hawkeye, as actors who will portray their Netflix characters in MCU. While that makes for an exciting future, what’s not clear is if the their appearances in the MCU will be continuing the stories they began telling on Netflix, will serve as a soft reboot or will ignore them entirely and simply be the same actors playing entirely new versions of the same characters.

    With so much uncertainty over the topic, Twitter user Trash ‘n Treasure smartly asked one guy who might know: Daredevil Season 1 showrunner and director Steven DeKnight. Unfortunately, as it turns out, DeKnight is in the same boat as the rest of us.

    It looks like people will continue to debate the canonicity of the Netflix series until we have further evidence from the projects in which the characters will appear (and let’s be honest, even when faced with a factual answer, people will still debate it). However, while fans continue to dwell on the past of the characters, it’s a lot more enjoyable to focus on what seems like it’s going to be an exciting future for them. Regardless of whether or not the events of the Netflix series “happened” in the MCU, two actors who gave incredible performances are about to give fans a whole new set of events to enjoy and debate. With D’Onofrio and Cox expected to be fully revealed in the roles over the next two weeks, we wont have too long to wait to start enjoying them all over again.

  • RUMOR: Episode 5 of ‘Hawkeye’ Will Set Social Media Abuzz

    RUMOR: Episode 5 of ‘Hawkeye’ Will Set Social Media Abuzz

    While Episode 3 of Hawkeye, “Echoes”, let the proverbial cat out of the bag regarding the identity of the head of organized crime in New York City. The episode revealed that Maya Lopez’s “Uncle”, her father’s best friend, is the Kingpin of crime. What it didn’t QUITE explicitly reveal is the identity of the actor in the role of Wilson Fisk (though to fans of Vincent D’Onofrio’s work, it was incredibly clear). According to a new rumor, however, it looks like we might get that confirmation in next week’s 5th episode.

    In his weekly “Inside Line” column, TV Line insider Matt Mitovich fielded a question about Hawkeye. In response, Mitovich mentioned that he heard the episode would “blow up Twitter a bit.” While it’s obviously not a direct response, anyone pretending that Mitovich isn’t referring to not only the revelation of D’Onofrio returning to the role but also setting up the character as a major player in the MCU is simply looking to be contrarian.

    Ever since Charlie Cox was reported to be reprising his role at Matt Murdock, a report that was confirmed yesterday by Kevin Feige, fans of the Netflix series Daredevil were waiting for D’Onofrio to join him in making the jump to the MCU. Now, Hawkeye has brought D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk into the Sacred Timeline and it’s highly unlikely it was just for a cameo; it’s much more likely that this is just the beginning of this chapter of Fisk’s story.

    Source: TV Line

  • Vincent D’Onofrio on Hawkeye: “This is Going to Be Fun”

    Vincent D’Onofrio on Hawkeye: “This is Going to Be Fun”

    For months now, rumors have swirled that Vincent D’Onofrio would be reprising his role as Wilson Fisk in the upcoming Marvel Studios streaming series Hawkeye. If the “rumors” are true, D’Onofrio would join Charlie Cox in making the jump from Marvel’s Netflix Defender-verse to the mainstream MCU.

    While both actors have attempted to deny their involvement, they’ve both recently commented on what they’d like to see their characters do if they did return with D’Onofrio recently saying he’d love to go up against Spider-Man. D’Onofrio is always active on social media and with Hawkeye’s debut just a week away, the actor took to Twitter to indicate that he’s also a big fan of the Marvel Studios’ produced series on Disney Plus and that he thinks this one is “going to be fun.”

    With Maya Lopez, aka Echo, appearing in Hawkeye and her character having such strong comic book ties to Kingpin, the series provides the perfect opportunity for the character to come on board. The return of Cox and D’Onofrio in their respective roles could prove to be just the beginning of big things for those characters in the future, with a Daredevil project rumored to be in the works. With Hawkeye’s 6 episodes spanning the holiday season and wrapping up before the new year, maybe Kingpin is Feige’s gift to us all.

  • Vincent D’Onofrio Wants Kingpin to Square Up with Spider-Man in the MCU

    Vincent D’Onofrio Wants Kingpin to Square Up with Spider-Man in the MCU

    Vincent D’Onofrio’s work as Wilson Fisk on the Netflix streaming series Daredevil is held in the highest of regards by Marvel fans, with many believing his Kingpin sits firmly within the top tier of modern live-action Marvel villains. Rumors of D’Onofrio’s return to the role have been rampant for months and with Hawkeye, the project at the center of those rumors, set to stream soon, fans are becoming anxious to see if the Emmy-nominated actor will indeed reprise the role in the MCU.

    D’Onofrio recently talked with Jake’s Takes and when asked what Marvel hero he’d like to see Fisk go toe-to-toe with should he return to the role, the actor had a reply at the ready saying, “it definitely has to be Spider-Man. One day…I’m hoping. We’ll see if they ask me to do it.” Obviously a well-read man, D’Onofrio continued, “Kingpin lived in a world of Punisher, Daredevil and Spider-Man so that would be the one.” Fisk, of course, debuted in 1967 in issue #50 of The Amazing Spider-Man. Over the years and especially at the hands of Frank Miller, the character evolved from a stereotypical crime lord into the monstrous threat and the archenemy of Daredevil.

    It’s those connections to the Daredevil comics, specifically to the character of Maya Lopez/Echo, that have fans on (king)pins and needles as to whether D’Onofrio will return as Fisk in Hawkeye. In the comics, Fisk raised Lopez as his own daughter after killing her father. With the character of Lopez, played by Alaqua Cox, getting her own spinoff series, sentiment is growing that Fisk MUST play a part in her life and that D’Onofrio is the man for the job.

    Watch the entire video interview below and watch D’Onofrio reprise the role of Kingpin (hopefully) in Hawkeye, which begins streaming on Disney Plus with a 2-episode premiere on November 24th.