Hawkeye Scripts Kept Kingpin Under Wraps by Calling Him a “Frail Old Man”

By now, every fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe knows all too well Marvel Studios goes to great lengths to keep the secrets of their film and television shows under lock and key. Case in point, the earliest scripts of Hawkeye once suggested the show’s overarching villain was simply a “frail old man” instead of the fan-favorite baddie called Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). Hawkeye costume designer Michael Crow 

“Originally in the script it sort of read like—in the comics there’s sort of this frail old man with an oxygen mask,” Crow told Gold Derby (via The Direct). “And that’s sort of what was in the original script… we started shooting [Hawkeye] in December [2021], and we weren’t shooting it until the end of January [2022], so at point, like over the holidays, I reached out to [Trinh Tran], who is one of our producers, and I just sort of asked, ‘So, we haven’t really talked about this character. Do you want what’s in the comic book, is that what we need to do? Because that’s a custom thing, [and] who’s the cast member? We need to start moving on this.’ And I just got a little text back [saying], ‘We’ll talk more about it later, but that’s not really what it is.’”

It wasn’t until D’Onofrio signed on the dotted line and rushed into filming now that the villain had been determined. According to the designer, few at Marvel Studios knew what was going on, all to keep the secret from getting out. Tran quickly responded, revealing all to the designer if he swore to keep things secret.

“And then a couple days later, I got a call, and she whispered, ‘This is what we’re doing, nobody knows, you can’t tell anybody,’” the designer added. “So, even for a month after that, I couldn’t talk to vendors, like nothing because Vincent [D’Onofrio] wasn’t signed. It was very secret. I think maybe outside of the [higher-ups, I was the first person told].”

All six episodes of Hawkeye are now streaming on Disney+.

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