How Hawkeye's Finale Sets Up Echo Spinoff Series

The season finale of Hawkeye successfully set up its spinoff series Echo, starring Alaqua Cox, by having her confront Kazi (Fra Fee) and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio), who were secretly responsible for her mother's death. The episode featured multiple showdowns that concluded story arcs for Clint Barton, Kate Bishop, Yelena Belova, and Eleanor Bishop, and the lack of a true post-credits scene means all of the setup for Echo took place in the finale's runtime. This ultimately worked out for the best, since fans will want to see what happens to Maya Lopez next in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"So This Is Christmas?" featured a lot of Kingpin, who originally debuted on Marvel's Daredevil Netflix show. When Echo and Ronin fought prior, Clint Barton revealed his identity to Maya Lopez, while also telling her that Kingpin is the one who took out the hit on her father. Echo seemingly believed Clint, since she went to Kingpin and Kazi to tell them she was ending her pursuit of Ronin. This was all a ploy, though Kingpin and Kazi could see through her deception. Echo packed her belongings to leave town, but decided to stay and take the fight to her betrayers. While Clint and Kate fought the Tracksuit Mafia, Yelena Belova, and Kingpin, Echo had one final confrontation with Kazi. 

She begged Kazi to run away with her, revealing how much the two cared for one another. However, Kazi couldn't take Echo up on her offer, stating he couldn't play the role of boyfriend and gangster. Kazi left Echo no choice but to kill him, setting up a one-on-one with her "uncle," Wilson Fisk. The Kingpin claimed to love Maya, but as we all know, he has a strange way of showing it. Before the episode concluded, Echo took a handgun, held it up to Kingpin, and pulled the trigger. Of course, viewers only heard the gunshot go off, and didn't see the aftermath of what really happened to Kingpin, leading to speculation he survived the attack.

"We're family," Fisk said, staring down the barrel of Maya's gun. "Sometimes family doesn't see eye to eye." The scene almost mirrors the Echo/Kingpin showdown from the comics. Daredevil (Vol. 2) #15 sees Echo shoot Kingpin in the head. He somehow survived the attack, but lost his vision. Seeing as Marvel Studios went through the trouble of bringing Vincent D'Onofrio back to play Kingpin once again, we can't see this being a one-off appearance. Kingpin more than likely survived Echo's attack as well, leading to an appearance in the Echo Disney+ series.

If Kingpin decides to get revenge on Echo, we could see Charlie Cox's Daredevil transition from Netflix to Disney+ as well. She played a vital role in the Daredevil comics, so it makes sense to have her series lead to the Man Without Fear's MCU return — not counting Matt Murdock's surprise appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home, of course.

All episodes of Hawkeye are now streaming on Disney+