Daredevil's Vincent D'Onofrio Clarifies Kingpin MCU Return Speculation
Former Daredevil star Vincent D'Onofrio has clarified rumours that his character Kingpin could be returning to the MCU. D'Onofrio played Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, for the entirety of Daredevil's three season run on Netflix opposite Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock. During this time, D'Onofrio proved to be a stand-out in the series. While Netflix's series only proved to be tangentially related to the wider MCU -alluding the battle of New York in Avengers- their status as canon has been brought into question ever since Marvel started producing their own series for Disney+ such as Loki and WandaVision.
D'Onofrio rose to prominence after his iconic performance as Pvt. Pyle in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket - his fourth film role. The actor then went on to feature in a number of roles including starring as villain Edgar, a farmer whose body was used as a skin-suit by an insectoid alien, in Men in Black for which he was awarded a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. Most recently the actor played Governor George Wilburn in Ryan Murphy's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest prequel series Ratched, and is set to appear in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, based on the life of the eponymous televangelist which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this week.
Known for writing short poetic pieces on his Twitter, D'Onofrio recently stirred up rumours that he could be returning to the MCU as Wilson Fisk. However, in a follow-up tweet, the actor said it was "silly to look deeper into the little pieces I write." D'Onofrio added that he greatly appreciated the fans who had circulated this speculation as he "loved playing [Kingpin] in Daredevil." You can check out the full tweet below:
While not all of Netflix's Marvel series hit the mark, fans are keen to see some of these characters make the jump to a Disney+ series or even an MCU film, so much so that some were convinced that they had spotted Cox's Matt Murdock in the recent trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home. This speculation spurred Cox to clarify that he wasn't involved in Tom Holland's third outing as the wall-crawler. Jon Bernthal recently expressed interest in reprising his role as the Punisher in the MCU, but noted that he had not heard anything from Marvel about the possibility.
With D'Onofrio's performance as Fisk being as beloved as it was, it's understandable why so many would love for him to return. There has been some speculation that he could in fact be reprising his role for the upcoming Hawkeye series, since the character played a key part in Matt Fraction's run on the comic which serves as the inspiration for the series. With the series focusing on the consequences of Hawkeye's time hunting the criminal underworld as Ronin, it would make sense for Kingpin to be one of the individuals hunting the former Avenger. Of course, this is pure speculation but it would make sense for Marvel to bring back a lauded actor like D'Onofrio rather than recast the role.
However, D'Onofrio appears keen to downplay these rumors, so viewers must take his comments at face value. As exciting as it would be to see the actor return, it would simultaneously raise even more questions about what is considered canon in the MCU. Even if he is being honest about not returning to the MCU, at least fans have his incredible performance in Daredevil to look back fondly upon.
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Source: Vincent D'Onofrio