Having made the return we were all expecting in the penultimate episode of Hawkeye, fans were then left confused by the fate of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in the finale.
In the midst of an intense standoff with Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez, we hear a gunshot ring out, but nobody’s buying it. After all, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become almost infamously reliant on the fake-out death over the years, and there’s no chance the franchise would bring back such a popular villain, only to kill him off instantly.
Hawkeye spinoff Echo seems like the most likely destination for D’Onofrio to return, and in an interview with ComicBook, the actor revealed where he wants Wilson Fisk’s story to head next.
“Ayelet Zurer, who played Vanessa, she’s an amazing actress. During our process in the third season, there was something there we were always wanting to get right. That was that this monster can be in life and that somebody can love the monster. That was so important to get away with, so with me, there’s a lot more we can do with that; to show this guy as a human being and dealing with stuff we all deal with living in that heightened world. I think there’s a lot to do there if anybody had the mind to do so.”
Given that D’Onofrio has been vocal in admitting he’s approaching the MCU’s Kingpin as if he’s the exact same character we first met on Netflix’s Daredevil, then there’s absolutely no reason why his onscreen wife couldn’t be brought back, too.
In fact, this isn’t even the first time he’s mentioned it, so it’ll be interesting to see if Zurer’s Vanessa ends up boarding a future project to be reunited with her crime lord hubby, especially when the MCU has always been heavily driven by dysfunctional family dynamics since the very beginning.