Hawkeye leaks reveal Marvel’s plan for a fan-favorite Netflix villain

Hawkeye may be the butt of most Marvel jokes, but Clint Barton is about the get the last laugh. Jeremy Renner’s upcoming show, Hawkeye, will apparently do the impossible by bringing one of the most popular villains from Netflix’s Marvel shows into the studio’s cinematic universe.

That’s right, Hawkeye is about to make Wilson Fisk into MCU canon. This might sound like wild fan speculation, but there’s some legitimacy to this latest Marvel leak.

A Long-Awaited Return — Moderators of the r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit reported this week that Vincent D’Onofrio will be reprising his Daredevil role as Wilson Fisk (aka, Kingpin) in Marvel’s upcoming Hawkeye series. The Reddit post also mentions that Hawkeye will reportedly premiere on Disney+ close to when Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters in December, due to some alleged “connections” between the two projects.

If true, Hawkeye will mark the first time that D’Onofrio has appeared as Fisk since the third and final season of Daredevil was released in 2018. It’d also be the first time Marvel features a character from its short-lived Netflix era in one of its Disney+ originals.

Notably, D’Onofrio liked a tweet this week reiterating the reports of his involvement in Hawkeye. That caught the attention of fans online, though, and he’s since unliked the tweet.

Make Way for the King — While this leak remains unconfirmed, it syncs up with many other reports and leaks circulating online in recent months regarding Marvel’s plans for its Netflix characters.

That Hashtag Show reported in April that the studio was planning on reintroducing a handful of actors and characters from its Netflix shows in the MCU. D’Onofrio is said to be one of those returning actors, along with Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil), Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), and Jon Bernthal (Frank Castle/The Punisher).

Kevin Feige expressed an openness earlier this year to the idea of bringing back some of the characters and actors from Marvel’s Netflix series as well, and D’Onofrio isn’t the only one said to be appearing in an upcoming MCU title. It’s also been heavily rumored that Charlie Cox will reprise his role as Daredevil in Spider-Man: No Way Home, which could be one of the connections between the film and Hawkeye that this week’s Reddit report alludes to. (Could the multiverse play a role in reintegrating these characters?)

As for whether or not D’Onofrio will actually appear in Hawkeye, there’s no way of knowing for sure until the series premieres (or Disney confirms it some other way). That said, Fisk does have a major connection in the comics to Maya Lopez/Echo, a character not only set to appear in Hawkeye but who is also the subject of another Disney+ series in the works right now at Marvel. With that in mind, it’d make sense for Fisk to have a role in Hawkeye, if only for the series to establish his relationship with Echo.

The Inverse Analysis — As Marvel continues to expand its television side of the MCU, it seems like only a matter of time before the studio reintroduces characters from its Netflix experiment. For all their flaws, those shows were all exceptionally well-cast, and the performances given by Cox, Ritter, Bernthal, and D’Onofrio were all well-received by comics fans.

In other words, the question we’re facing right now doesn’t seem to be if Marvel is going to bring those actors back but when. Many have believed for months that Cox’s rumored appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home would be the first time that an actor from one of Marvel’s Netflix shows reprised their role in a modern MCU title, and while that may still turn out to be true, it’s possible that D’Onofrio could beat him to the punch in Hawkeye.

Hawkeye is expected to premiere on Disney+ later this year.