As if fans of the superhero genre needed any more reasons to love Hugh Jackman, a legend of comic book adaptations in his own right after his iconic tenure as the X-Men franchise’s Wolverine, it turns out that he pushed Vincent D’Onofrio towards Kingpin in a roundabout way.
It didn’t take long after the debut of Daredevil‘s first season for the actor’s Kingpin to be established as one of the best live-action Marvel villains we’d ever seen, and now D’Onofrio is back in a big way thanks to Disney Plus series Hawkeye, not that he was ever shy in the interim about his desire to throw on the white tux again.
Speaking to Marvel News Desk, D’Onofrio revealed that a chance conversation with Jackman over the increasing merits of superhero cinema planted the idea in his head, one that eventually became Wilson Fisk.
“The only thing that was on my radar at that point when it came to superhero stuff was Robert [Downey Jr.]’s performance in Iron Man, which I thought was extremely impressive. I think I was actually with Hugh Jackman — he was over at my house ’cause our kids went to the same school, and we were sitting at my patio . . . and I said, ‘This superhero stuff is really turning out to be interesting,’ and he goes, ‘Yeah!’ And I’m like, ‘You know, I think one day I’m gonna get the chance to play one of those bad guys, and I think I could tear it up.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, I think you could too.'”
Fair play for D’Onofrio recognizing very early on that he was exactly the sort of recognizable, distinguished character actor that spandex-clad blockbusters love casting as a bad guy, and it’d be an understatement to say the decision to hire him for Netflix’s Daredevil has paid off very handsomely in the long run.
