For many Marvel fans, the most important thing about Echo was not its contents but its context, as the arrival of the Disney Plus series also brought the long-awaited confirmation that the Defenders Saga is 100% MCU canon.
Yes, after theories had swirled for years that Charlie Cox’s Daredevil in Spider-Man and She-Hulk might’ve just been some kind of identical variant to the Netflix character, Echo confirmed that Daredevil — and, by extension, its sister series — are all part of the Sacred Timeline. This was subtly achieved through flashbacks to the origins of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin. We found out he killed his father at just 11 years of age — which is old news for those who’ve seen DD season 1.
There’s just one small hitch, though, that only the most eagle-eyed and avid Daredevil fans would’ve spotted. In Echo, Wilson Fisk presents his adoptive niece Maya Lopez with a strange gift: the hammer that he used to kill his not-so-dearly departed dad. The only problem? The hammer in question was a ball-peen hammer, whereas the tool/murder weapon in DD was a claw hammer.
Despite the fact that he’s an acclaimed Emmy-nominated actor and not a member of the r/MarvelStudios Reddit community, Vincent D’Onofrio was asked for his thoughts on this discrepancy while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter. For the Hawkeye star, minor continuity errors like this don’t make or break the canon as it’s the creative spirit and tone that is what’s most important.
“I’ve been acting for forty-something years, and so I’m used to working with many different kinds of creative people. The best ones have a completely unique look at things, and so it never surprises me when things change a bit from project to project. It just doesn’t. The most we can do is be very savvy when it comes to the canon of these characters, Daredevil and Kingpin. We need to be on it when it comes to the right tone, and we need to give them what they’re looking for when it comes to this kind of storytelling.”
Kudos to D’Onofrio, that is an eloquently worded response to a question that would be best directed to the Echo showrunners or perhaps even the props department. No one would’ve blamed him if he’d borrowed Lucy Lawless’ classic response to a fanboy question from The Simpsons: “A wizard did it.”
If you do want to get nerdy with it, though, it is possible to dream up a potential explanation for this curious alteration to the timeline. Don’t forget that Loki season 2 ended with Loki rebooting the multiverse, which essentially gives Marvel a “get out of jail free” card for any continuity errors for the remainder of the Multiverse Saga. Maybe Lucy Lawless was wrong and a wizard didn’t do it. Maybe a Loki did it.
Basically, keep an eye out for other clues at canon-shaking shenanigans occurring in Daredevil: Born Again. The hammer might just be the beginning…
