Disney Plus series Hawkeye finally brought back the character fans had been hoping for this week, with Vincent D’Onofrio’s crime lord Kingpin – last seen in the cancelled Netflix Daredevil series – returning as the leader of the Tracksuit mafia and battling Kate (Hailee Steinfeld) in Hawkeye’s finale.
It’s great to see D’Onofrio back in action as the iconic Wilson Fisk – but what’s next for his revival of the character given the events of the finale? Look away now if you haven’t seen the Hawkeye finale, because we’ll be discussing with spoilers below the break.
Is Kingpin dead?
In his final scene of the episode, Kingpin (who escapes police custody after being blown up by trick arrowheads) comes face-to-face with Maya (Alaqua Cox), his protégé and adoptive niece who recently discovered he wasn’t quite as nice an uncle as she thought (he had her father murdered years before).
While Fisk tries to talk Maya round, she’s not taking him at face value any more. Their scene ends with Maya unbuckling her sidearm and pointing the gun at Kingpin, and as the camera pans away we hear a final shot.
But… surely that’s not it, right? After all the hullabaloo of bringing D’Onofrio back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems odd to off him again after just one episode – especially when his old nemesis, Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, has also been confirmed to be back in the MCU after Spider-Man: No Way Home.
!["hawkeye"]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/3/2021/12/Kingpin-Hawkeye-ending-9fea80d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413" "\"Kingpin")
We’re taking it as a misdirect. As a rule in these sort of stories, if you don’t see a gunshot hitting its intended target or a body, then that victim hasn’t really died. Somehow, Kingpin must have slithered out of danger again.
And we might already know how he survived. In the comics, there’s a similar storyline where Kingpin takes Maya/Echo under his wing, convinces her someone else is to blame for her dad’s death (in that case, Daredevil) when it was him all along. And just like in Hawkeye she figures out the truth and turns on her mentor, shooting him point-blank in the face with a gun.
However, as we’ve seen in the Hawkeye finale Kingpin is a tough cookie. In the comics he ends up surviving the shot, though suffers eye trauma that renders him blind for a while (in parallel with his nemesis Daredevil).
It seems likely that either the confirmed Echo/Maya TV series or some other Marvel project (possibly a Daredevil revival now Charlie Cox is back) will see this storyline adapted – Kingpin blind but still powerful, trying to get his revenge and control New York once more.
Or, you know, maybe he did just get killed one episode after his introduction, just when Daredevil is back in the MCU. Somehow, the mad comics theories seem more likely…
Read more about Hawkeye:
- Hawkeye end credits scene explained
- Echo release date speculation, cast and latest news for Hawkeye spin-off
- Hawkeye star says he’s hoping to be a part of the Echo spin-off
- Who is Echo in Marvel’s Hawkeye? All about Alaqua Cox’s new hero Maya Lopez
Hawkeye is now streaming on Disney Plus. For more, check out our dedicated Sci-Fi page or our full TV Guide.
This year’s Radio Times Christmas double issue is on sale now, featuring two weeks of TV, film and radio listings, reviews, features and interviews with the stars.