Vincent D’Onofrio Needed To Make A Major Change In Order To Rejoin Marvel
Vincent D'Onofrio had to make some major changes in order to officially join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They were worth it.
Spoiler warning for Vincent D’Onofrio Hawkeye and mild spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home ahead!
If there’s one thing Marvel is good at, it’s creating character crossovers that fans get excited about. In Spider-Man: No Way Home we finally got to see a Netflix Marvel Cinematic Universe character cross over into the movies. Charlie Cox appeared as Peter Parker’s lawyer Matt Murdock, much to the joy of Daredevil fans everywhere. Daredevil was arguably the most well-regarded out of the Netflix-Marvel shows, and the performances of Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin played no small part in this. Thus, fans got just as hype when Kingpin made his grand Marvel reappearance in the Disney+ series Hawkeye.
Various references were made to the “big guy” throughout the first season of Hawkeye before his eventual reveal in the penultimate episode. And apparently, Vincent D’Onofrio had to get into big guy shape to reprise his role. On the Comicbook Nation Podcast, D’Onofrio talked about how he had to gain over 20 pounds to get a more comic-accurate Kingpin look. We’d say the effort he made was definitely worth it. D’Onofrio’s intimidating size in the role is what makes Kingpin so formidable. When he fought Hawkeye protagonist Kate Bishop in the finale, his physicality helped to make him a very imposing and frightening foe.
And for those die-hard MCU fans who are wondering, Vincent D’Onofrio confirms that this is the same Kingpin as the one from the Netflix series, so all of his same history is there. That means Charlie Cox’s Daredevil is presumably in the same position. With these fan-favorite characters making their return, it’s exciting to see where Marvel will take them next. We might even get to see the return of other characters from the Marvel-Netflixverse like Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Jessica Jones. The quality and reception of these series, along with their team-up season The Defenders, were met with varying levels of success and acclaim, but fans generally enjoyed the takes on the characters.
We don’t know when (or if) Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin will pop up next. There was some ambiguity about his fate at the end of Hawkeye, so hopefully, we’ll see him again soon. Kingpin is often a villain that Spider-Man goes up against, so maybe Charlie Cox won’t be the only one from the Daredevil cast appearing in a Spider-Man movie. Even better, it would be great to see Cox’s Daredevil and Holland’s Spider-Man team up to take on Kingpin or a different threat. There’s precedence for this in the comics, so you definitely can’t rule out the possibility.
Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin is definitely high up in the ranks of the best Marvel villains we’ve seen on screen, so it would be a shame if we didn’t see more from him. Of course, the weight gain and loss probably take a toll on Vincent D’Onofrio himself, so it’s possible that reprising the role might not be something he wants to do. Regardless of if we see him again or not, you can stream all of his appearances as Kingpin on Netflix in Daredevil and on Disney+ in Hawkeye.
