‘Daredevil’ Season 3 Officially Names Wilson Fisk The Kingpin

Daredevil season 3 gets a big boost from the milestone return of Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, whose release from prison begins a two-pronged attack on the lives of both Matt Murdock and Daredevil. While Fisk’s volatile ferocity and ruthless coercion methods are already familiar to Daredevil fans, season 3 brings a new development for the character that Marvel Comics fans will love.

Read below for the SPOILER-FILLED details on how Wilson Fisk gets the official name of “The Kingpin” in Daredevil season 3!

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By episode 9 (“Revelations”) of Daredevil season 3, it’s become clear that Wilson Fisk has been wrapping his tentacles around all sorts of figures within law enforcement, the justice system, and the media. Agent Ray Nadeem (Jay Ali) is the one who gets particularly burned, as his deal for Fisk’s cooperation is revealed to be an empty ploy, used to eventually bring Nadeem totally under Fisk’s thumb. When Nadeem tries to snitch on Fisk to his superior, Agent Hattley (Kate Udall), he’s framed for the murder of an agency official, landing him squarely under Fisk’s thumb.

Once Nadeem has been cornered, Fisk reveals just how far his corrupting touch reaches, as one scene of “Revelations” sees Agent Nadeem brought to a secret room of the FBI office, in which a small cabal of agents all work together as Fisk’s informants and enforcers. Included in the group are Agent Hattley, and Special Agent Ben Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), with the latter serving as Fisk’s faux Daredevil in some carefully plotted massacres.

Agent Nadeem finds himself overwhelmed by the realization that Fisk has been holding all the cards and pulling all the strings, for years since his incarceration. When Nadeem voices his shock and revulsion aloud, he’s informed there are rules that the cabal is governed by. One of the biggest rules in the group is never mentioning Fisk’s name out loud at any time (like Nadeem has done); instead, as Dex tells it:

“It’s one of the rules, Ray. We only refer to him by his codename… Kingpin.”

This is a clever twist on comic book fantasy, framing the name “Kingpin” as less as an archvillain nickname, and more of codename that would actually be used by military and law enforcement officials, in regards to a high-value target or asset. It’s not the only way that Daredevil season 3 pushes D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk closer towards his Kingpin comic book persona: as you can see in the header image, this same episode has Fisk head a table of NYC’s big organized crime syndicates, while wearing his iconic white Kingpin suit. In one of the final episodes he even adorns a white suit with a rose, fully completing the image of the comic book Kingpin fans know and love.

Did you like the evolution of The Kingpin in this latest chapter of the story? Let us know in the comments!

Daredevil season 3 is now streaming on Netflix.