A last-minute villain change made Kingpin the principal antagonist in Hawkeye - but ironically the decision accidentally ruined a perfect twist. There's a sense in which every Disney+ TV series has been a variation on the same theme; there's a mystery villain operating in the shadows, orchestrating events over the course of the show. Agatha Harkness played that role in WandaVision, He Who Remains in Loki, Sharon Carter's Power Broker in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, and - of course - the Kingpin was the Machiavellian mastermind in Hawkeye.

It's difficult to imagine Hawkeye without the Kingpin, whose presence looms over the show from the moment the "Big Guy" is first referenced in episode 1. But, surprisingly, he was actually something of a late addition. According to Hawkeye director Rhys Thomas, Marvel originally circled "this other 'big bad guy,'" but in the end a Marvel executive approached him and suggested Kingpin should be the villain. Everything fell into place - perhaps a little too neatly, given the villain twist was rather heavily signposted. This naturally raises the question of just who the original villain really was; the most likely possibility is Fra Fee's Kazi.

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Assuming this is indeed the case, the decision to pivot towards Kingpin seems to have accidentally ruined a perfect twist. In the final version of Hawkeye, Kazi is Echo's lieutenant, reporting directly to the Kingpin. He apparently betrayed Echo's father on Kingpin's orders, leading to his murder by Ronin - an act of betrayal that is oddly unexplained, because the series never reveals why Kingpin wanted Echo's father dead in the first place, or even what Kazi gained from it all. That motive would have been clearer had he been revealed to be the true villain, because he'd be the manipulative mastermind - the one who preferred to rule from the shadows, allowing Echo to apparently be in charge while using his relationship with her to ensure she stayed in line. By that interpretation, Echo's father was killed simply because he was either resistant to Kazi's manipulations, or began to see through him. In either case, Ronin was simply the tool.

Fra Free as Kazi arguing with Maya Lopez (off-screen) in Hawkeye

Echo certainly experienced Kingpin's betrayal as something very personal, but unfortunately, viewers didn't really feel the true sting of it all, simply because Echo and Kingpin had shared so few scenes together. In contrast, a Kazi villain twist would have been far more impactful on an emotional level. There'd have been a truly sinister feel to it, by virtue of the romantic relationship Kazi had cultivated with Echo, which would have given Hawkeye a much sharper edge.

Unfortunately, Hawkeye sadly largely wasted Kazi - a villain from the comics codenamed "The Clown," who was hired by the Tracksuit Mafia to assassinate the Hawkeyes. He had a particularly dark history with Hawkeye, and in fact was personally responsible for Clint Barton's hearing loss in the comics. It's not hard to see how that could even have factored into the story; Hawkeye could have been tricked into killing Echo's father by Kazi, and then critically wounded by him, forced to abandon New York leaving him as a loose end from his time as Ronin. In narrative terms, a Kazi villain twist would probably have been a lot more impactful than Kingpin - but it is unlikely to have been as well-received, simply because most modern Marvel viewers are more invested in villains like Kingpin who can go on to have a major impact on the MCU going forward, rather than in enemies whose stories are rather more self-contained. Marvel made the right call with Hawkeye, even if it ironically led to a weaker series as a whole.

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