Vincent D'Onofrio Interview: Hawkeye

Warning: This post contains Hawkeye finale spoilers

After being teased throughout Marvel's Hawkeye, Vincent D'Onofrio finally made his proper, long-awaited return as Kingpin in the finale, "So This is Christmas?" The actor, of course, first portrayed the role in Netflix's Daredevil, which ran for three seasons before it was cancelled. Since then, viewers have expressed an interest in seeing D'Onofrio return as the iconic villain and were excited to see him come back after a few years.

D'Onofrio spoke with Screen Rant to discuss reprising Kingpin. In our conversation, he talked about some of the episode's biggest twists and revealed if Hawkeye's Kingpin is the same character fans saw in Daredevil.

Screen Rant: Merry Christmas to us. I can't believe it. It's almost 2022 And we're sitting here talking about Kingpin. How does that feel?

Vincent D'Onofrio: Yeah, feels great.

When Marvel says, “We're thinking about bringing back Kingpin.” What was your reaction?

Vincent D'Onofrio: Well, Kevin [Feige] called me. He's the one that told me. And, as you can imagine, I was very happy about it and excited about it, because I love playing this part so much. So that was my reaction.

What were the discussions in terms of how Kingpin should be brought back into the MCU?

Vincent D'Onofrio: Well, it was going to be the same Kingpin – that it was after the blip, that he had lost some of his power, and he needed to get his city back. That's the way I approached it. That was the storyline. And as far as the character himself, I used everything that I used when I did it for Daredevil. It's the same emotional life. The same character. Everything is based, whether it's joy that's happening, or sadness, or frustration, or anger, whatever is going on with Kingpin, it's all through his emotional life as a child.

Kingpin looking down at something in Hawkeye.

That’s a big question I have, too, is we've seen you as Kingpin in Daredevil. Do they exist separately? Do you see them as one? Are these two separate worlds?

Vincent D'Onofrio: Yeah they don't exist sep-- they're the same person.

Same person.

Vincent D'Onofrio: Yeah. I think from my point of view, like a lot of the Avengers stuff, a lot of the MCU stuff, they tried to connect as many dots to the original canon as they can, and some dots are just not possible to connect. And that's what we've done with connecting to Daredevil and vice versa. There's some dots [that] are connected. Like in the Hawkeye show, Fisk is obviously physically stronger and can take more physical abuse. But the key to his being an interesting character, in my mind, will always be the fact that he has this emotional life that grounds him, that makes everything work, as far as I'm concerned. We can sell that character in so many facets. Story-wise we can sell it, if we keep him based in that emotional life. And I know that the writers, and the producers, and me, and everybody involved in the Hawkeye show, we were all on the same page about that.

I have to say that they're very collaborative people and – not only to mention awesome people, very nice – but the producers, like I said, the writers and the directors were all just thrilled to work with so we kept along those lines. And I think that's what will continue to make the character interesting if there's anything next for me to do.

That's my next question. I don't know if you can answer, but there was a big strong reaction to the end of the episode of whether or not Kingpin was dead. I don't think he is at all, but is there anything you can say about that?

Vincent D'Onofrio: Yeah. I hope he's not dead. You know, I feel the same way everybody else does about him. You know, he never died in the comics. But, I hoped that Daredevil wouldn't end. So, it's like that. I think it's very clear. I think the fans know, and I think that Marvel knows, 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 and he knows that I feel that way. And I think that I'll either do it or I won't do it. So that's the business.

Next: Is Clint Barton Still An Avenger After Hawkeye? MCU Future Explained

Hawkeye is now streaming on Disney+