After months of rumours, it now seems pretty obvious that Hawkeye is setting the stage for Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk to make his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. The actor first played the Kingpin of Crime in Marvel Television and Netflix's Daredevil, though we're expecting a soft reboot of sorts that frees Marvel Studios from being beholden to any past continuity.
A glimpse of Fisk was featured in the first few minutes of last week's episode of Hawkeye, but when will he be fully revealed? TV Line recently shared the scoop on a number of shows, and when the site's Matt Webb Mitovich was asked about what fans can expect, he responded: "Only that Episode 5, I hear, should blow up Twitter a bit."
With all due respect to Yelena Belova (who we're anticipating seeing in action tomorrow), this sounds a lot like a reference to The Kingpin's return. It's going to be interesting to see what Marvel Studios does with the villain and just how much of an impact he'll make in the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. If nothing else, he's bound to factor into Echo and a future Daredevil movie or TV series.
In a separate interview with the site, Hawkeye directors Bert and Bernie were asked directly about who is pulling the strings of the Tracksuit Mafia, teasing: "Watching the show, you’ll probably find out."
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently confirmed that Charlie Cox will be the MCU's Daredevil, and it feels a lot like these Netflix characters are now being given a second chance. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean the same actors will play them or that they'll be portrayed in a similar way, but for those hoping for more Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, for example, this definitely bodes well.
What do you think we'll see in the fifth episode of Hawkeye?