Hawkeye: Could Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Role Actually Be the MCU’s New Vanessa Fisk?

Spoilers for Hawkeye incoming! The hierarchy of power in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is changing. Just ask Kingpin and his Tracksuit Mafia. Wednesday—as most expected—Wilson Fisk was revealed as the main villain of Hawkeye, with Vincent D’Onofrio reprising the role from his time in Netflix’s Daredevil series. The introduction of the character raised plenty of questions, such as concerns regarding the continuity of Daredevil and the other Netflix shows. It also raised the question, “Why is Fisk working with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine?”

Perhaps, and we’re pulling this out of deep left field, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ character isn’t actually de Fontaine. For the sake of theorization, let’s say she is none other than Vanessa Fisk, the wife of Wilson.

We know that de Fontaine appears to be assembling a group of villains or anti-heroes, with most suggesting she’s part of forming the Thunderbolts or a similar group. The thing is, Wilson Fisk—at least when it comes to the Marvel Comics lore—has recently been in control of the Thunderbolts, and a Thunderbolt-inspired police force.

Since Fisk is typically regarded as one of Marvel’s wealthiest characters, with some even suspecting he purchased Avengers Tower, he’d certainly have enough money to fund a team of his own superheroes. That’d explain why Kingpin and “de Fontaine” are working closely together and in turn, why Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga) was able to get someone to help assassinate Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) so easily.

We’ve seen Marvel use alias in other such aspects of its business, such as casting grids and the like, and introducing Louis-Dreyfus as a Fisk that early could have posed very spoilerific for Hawkeye and other future Marvel properties. That’s why the House of Ideas could have scrapped the bottom of the barrel for a name to use as a throwaway, before inevitably revealing Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the new Vanessa Fisk.

The first five episodes of Hawkeye are now streaming on Disney+.

What have you thought about Hawkeye this far? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!

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