Even though we knew the identity of the character from the second we saw Maya Lopez being patted by a certain set of meaty sausage fingers during the show’s flashbacks, the key creatives involved in Disney Plus series Hawkeye still tried to do their best when it came to dodging questions as to whether or not Uncle really was Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin.
It was the worst-kept secret in the world of streaming, and even though nobody was surprised when the former Daredevil star turned up in the penultimate episode, that didn’t mean audiences weren’t going wild. Secrecy was key, as it always is when the Marvel Cinematic Universe is shooting a new project, and that’s especially difficult for someone like Kingpin, who hardly blends in with the background.
In an interview with Collider, director Rhys Thomas compared Wilson Fisk to Voldemort in terms of how the crew were forced to try and keep his involvement under wraps for as long as possible, without mentioning him by name.
“It was really hard. It was really hard. It was almost a policy of never mentioning him by name. He became the Voldemort of us. He would arrive in a Voldemort-like cloak, he’d walk between his trailer and set covered in this thing and everything was closed.”
Now that he’s out in the open, the veil of secrecy might not be quite as heavy whenever D’Onofrio shoots his next MCU effort, which we’re expecting to be Hawkeye spinoff Echo, given his ties to Alaqua Cox’s Maya.