Hawkeye Easter Egg Could Reveal if Daredevil Netflix Series Is MCU Canon

The final two episodes of Hawkeye brought Marvel fans the major reveal that former star of Netflix’s Daredevil series, Vincent D’Onofrio, has reprised his role was villain Wilson Fisk (aka Kingpin) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kingpin’s return came hand-and-hand with Spider-Man: No Way Home’s cameo from Netflix Daredevil himself, Charlie Cox, who has also jumped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. Naturally, Marvel fans now have all kinds of deep questions about if and how Netflix’s Daredevil fits into MCU canon. Well, fans have now noticed one Hawkeye Easter egg that may help answer that very question! 

Marvel fans and sites like Screen Rant have pointed to Kingpin’s clothing choices in the Hawkeye finale. While you may have been distracted by Kingpin’s flashy white suits and that Hawaiin shirt (a comic reference selected by D’Onofrio himself), to have noticed that some familiar cufflinks were included in the outfit(s). 

Netflix’s Daredevil did substantial character-building work on Wilson Fisk/Kingpin – including his horrific origin of brutally murdering his own abusive father to protect his mother. Fisk took his father’s cufflinks as dark heirloom to remind himself of that man’s utter failure in life – the fuel of Kingpin’s own ambition to rule. The cufflinks’ white-and-black Ying Yang design signified the dual nature of Fisk as a businessman and murderous crimelord – which D’Onofrio deepened further with his depiction of Fisk’s obsession with a similarly-themed white painting. 

Netflix Daredevil’s adaptation of Kingpin’s origin was obviously based on Marvel Comics lore, so technically speaking this cufflink connection could be explained away as a deep staple of the character you’d find in any version or variant of Wilson Fisk. It’s a fair argument that the cufflinks are proof of Marvel Netflix’s MCU status, but far from definitive proof. 

ComicBook.com has gone straight to the source – Vincent D’Onofrio – and inquired how the actor himself understands the connection between his Marvel Netflix and MCU appearance as Kingpin:

“I knew that he would be physically stronger, and I knew that he would be able to take more physical abuse. I knew that [going in],” D’Onofrio said. 

The actor also went deeper, letting fans know that while official continuity questions may have yet to be answered, Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige wanted the Kingpin D’Onofrio had created in Daredevil: 

“Early on in our first conversation, I was about his emotional life and that how I approached, how I figured out how to play the character in Daredevil, and that I based my whole character on his emotional life. And that was how I needed to play him for Hawkeye,” D’Onofrio explains. “And they were just so excited that I said that, because it’s what they [Marvel Studios] were thinking.”

D’Onofrio added that “I think that everybody realizes that the only way this character, as of now, stays interesting is if he has these – even if you make him stronger – as long as he’s always based that his foundation is his emotional life and the pain, everything comes through the pain that he went through as a child. Then we’ve got a character there, an interesting character.”

Hawkeye is now streaming on Disney+. No confirmed time or place for when we’ll see MCU Kingpin next\.