Vincent D’Onofrio Reveals How The Blip Affected Kingpin In The Marvel Universe
Vincent D'Onofrio talked about coming into the Marvel Universe and how The Blip would have affected his Kingpin character in the interim
One of the key questions of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something that was established during the Avengers and is being carried over into this newest phase, is what happened to many characters during The Blip. For recent programs, this part of the timeline has been explored with more information on how that part of the timeline ultimately affected certain character arcs. And with some of the Netflix Defenders characters moving into the MCU, we have even more gaps to fill in. One of those is around Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin and what that dude has been up to since we last saw him on the streamer. He was happy to bring folks up to speed after his appearance in Hawkeye.
While speaking to CinemaBlend about his role in the Disney+ series, Vincent D’Onofrio talked at length about the Wilson Fisk/ Kingpin character. He discussed some of the changes that have happened between the time on Netflix and his “new” role within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Remember, those Daredevil stories that D’Onofrio started out in aren’t considered MCU canon even though characters are starting to work their way into these new stories. D’Onofrio specifically talked about what happened to his character during The Blip, the time following Thanos’s snap that saw half the universe’s population disappear. Vincent D’Onofrio also related it to how his character has changed since. Check it out:
“I mean, obviously, my character in Hawkeye is physically stronger and can take a lot more physical abuse. But my approach to him is exactly the same approach that I did on Daredevil…It was always established to me that it’s after the Blip and that he (Fisk) has lost the power that he had in Daredevil, and he wants it back. … In Hawkeye, he considers that he’s lost a bit of the control of his city, and he wants his city back.”
This is an interesting piece of information and one of the first clear throughlines between what happened on Netflix and what is happening here in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it’s clear that we aren’t in a 1:1 continuation from the Defenders’ timeline, it sure seems like Kevin Feige and company are working to maintain at least a semblance of consistency between those two worlds. Thereby lending more credence and credibility to the previous iterations of the characters. Vincent D’Onofrio is definitely playing it that way.
And in terms of the story arcs, The Blip offers the perfect reset for Vincent D’Onofrio as Kingpin. He’s out of jail but also working to move back up the criminal ladder in New York City. We know that he has both the brains and brawn to pull it off (he’s much stronger now in the MCU) but he doesn’t have quite the sway he had before the Snap. This would also make sense and why he’s on a different rung of the criminal hierarchy now.
It is clear the Marvel Cinematic Universe has plans for the Netflix folks with Vincent D’Onofrio joining Charlie Cox as the first people to reenter this timeline. We saw Cox make a brief appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home. We haven’t seen him as Daredevil yet, but that’s clearly coming. There was a brief moment that hinted he had many of the same powers here as he had during the original Netflix run. In all, Marvel has played the Netflix transition perfectly so far with the first two characters coming over. Let’s hope we start to see others soon, like Jon Bernthal as Punisher.
