Vincent D'Onofrio Wants To Continue Playing Kingpin In The MCU

(Note: This article includes spoilers for the season finale of "Hawkeye.")

Vincent D'Onofrio's ultra-strong crime lord Kingpin made his debut on "Hawkeye" last week, only to be quickly dispatched in the show's season finale. Speaking to ScreenRant, D'Onofrio says he's game to keep playing the bad guy in future Marvel Cinematic Universe projects. Still, D'Onofrio is pretty clear that his potential return to the Kingpin role is more a wish than a promise at this point.

"I hope he's not dead," D'Onofrio said, "But, I hoped that 'Daredevil' wouldn't end. So it's like that." When we last saw Kingpin, also known as Wilson Fisk, he was at the mercy of Maya (Alaqua Cox), the young fighter who was raised among the Tracksuit Mafia. Maya appears to shoot the villain in an alley in an act of retribution, but in typical Marvel fashion, we don't see the gory details.

The future of Kingpin is up to Marvel president Kevin Feige, but D'Onofrio says he's more than willing to come back to the character if asked. "Kevin knows that I want to continue playing this character because I feel like there's — and I told them and him — that there's so many more facets of this character to explore," D'Onofrio shared.

"You know, he never died in the comics," D'Onofrio points out, and he's not wrong. Kingpin has been a recurring character in Marvel Comics since the 1960s, but he's historically not an easy guy to defeat. The finale scene in which Maya apparently shoots the villain in an alley looks a lot like a scene from "Daredevil Vol. 2 #15," written by David Mack. Mack's comic run was the first to introduce Maya's character, so while much of the first season of "Hawkeye" follows the popular comic arc by Matt Fraction and David Aja, it would make sense for her introductory arc to draw from Mack's work as well. In that run of "Daredevil" comics, Fisk survives the shooting, but is blinded in the process.

There's also another, very basic reason Fisk should live. Though the villain was a main character in Netflix's "Daredevil," he only showed up in "Hawkeye" for one episode (well, technically three, if you count blurry cell phone footage and a largely out-of-frame appearance earlier in the season). Marvel's Disney+ shows connect to other in-universe properties by design, but they should also be able to stand alone. If we look at Kingpin's time on "Hawkeye" as its own arc, it's short and unsatisfying. After all, the man basically shows up and immediately gets hit by a car, shot with an arrow, and then shot with a gun. That's not exactly the most impressive appearance by a character who's meant to be incredibly intimidating. We're with D'Onofrio in hoping that Kingpin isn't dead.

"Hawkeye" season 1 is now streaming on Disney+.