Kevin Feige is directly responsible for Kingpin’s MCU return in ‘Hawkeye’

Fans’ dreams came true when Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk/Kingpin made the leap from Netflix to Disney Plus in Hawkeye. His performance in Daredevil is considered one of the greatest Marvel villain performances and, almost four years later, he can still deliver the goods.

We last saw Kingpin about to take a bullet to the face from a very upset Maya Lopez/Echo in the Hawkeye finale, but if you think an off-screen gunshot in a comic book show means he’s dead – I have a bridge to sell you. A common fan theory is that the Echo Disney Plus show will feature him and his relationship with Lopez, though Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock being back in the MCU means the pair need to have a rematch at some point.

Now we know that all this came directly from Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Feige. The episode of Marvel Studios: Assembled about Hawkeye has producer Brad Winderbaum revealing Feige first suggesting the character. The creative team was debating which character would work as an imposing villain and:

“Kevin threw out the idea that ‘What if this could be Kingpin?’ And I think all of our jaws just kind of dropped in our Zoom meeting, and we’re kinda like, ‘Wait, you’re joking, right? This can’t be serious. Are you serious? This is… You really think that there’s a chance that we can actually get Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays Kingpin in Daredevil in the series, as a cameo for a couple of scenes? Like, he is our big boss?’ And Kevin made a call to Vincent.”

D’Onofrio succinctly responded:

“[Feige] said ‘I want to bring you into the MCU’ and I’m not gonna say no to that. That’s pretty awesome.”

It’s telling that Feige doesn’t seem to consider the Netflix shows as ‘official’ MCU shows, likely because they were produced under the Marvel TV banner he wasn’t in charge of. But it’s clear that he recognizes what worked and doesn’t want to squander talent.

We may next see characters from those shows in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in May, though it seems very likely that legal comedy She-Hulk will see Jennifer Walters squaring off against Matt Murdock in court.

Hawkeye is available to stream on Disney Plus.