We finally have an answer as to whether or not Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin in Hawkeye and Daredevil are the same. D’Onofrio portrayed the Marvel villain in three seasons of Netflix’s Daredevil before the show was cancelled back in 2018. However, D’Onofrio returned as Fisk in the all new Disney Plus series Hawkeye, officially bringing him into the MCU.
Charlie Cox’s portrayal of Matt Murdock was also introduced into the MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home, where Daredevil served as Peter Parker’s lawyer. With that being said, it was not confirmed as to whether or not these were the same versions of the characters from the Netflix series, or simply variants given the multiversal madness ongoing in the MCU.
Now, thanks to D’Onofrio in a recent interview with ScreenRant, we have our answer. Vincent D’Onofrio confirmed that his version of “Kingpin” in both Daredevil and Hawkeye are, in fact, the same:
“I think from my point of view, like a lot of the Avengers stuff, a lot of the MCU stuff, they tried to connect as many dots to the original canon as they can, and some dots are just not possible to connect. And that’s what we’ve done with connecting to Daredevil and vice versa. There’s some dots [that] are connected. Like in the Hawkeye show, Fisk is obviously physically stronger and can take more physical abuse.
“But the key to his being an interesting character, in my mind, will always be the fact that he has this emotional life that grounds him, that makes everything work, as far as I’m concerned. We can sell that character in so many facets. Story-wise we can sell it, if we keep him based in that emotional life. And I know that the writers, and the producers, and me, and everybody involved in the Hawkeye show, we were all on the same page about that.
“I have to say that they’re very collaborative people and – not only to mention awesome people, very nice – but the producers, like I said, the writers and the directors were all just thrilled to work with so we kept along those lines. And I think that’s what will continue to make the character interesting if there’s anything next for me to do.”
As of this writing, Kingpin’s future in the MCU remains up-in-the-air given how things played out for him in the season finale of Hawkeye. However, with no shortage of MCU Netflix series to choose from in the vault – such as Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and The Punisher – this might only be the beginning of what Marvel has planned for past Netflix stars.