WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Season 1 of Hawkeye, streaming now on Disney+.
Hawkeye made an unexpected tie-in to the Netflix Marvel shows by introducing Daredevil's Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), aka the Kingpin, as the big bad behind the scenes. But the Kingpin's stay in Hawkeye was surprisingly short-lived as Fisk was shot down by a former ally in the series finale.
The Marvel fandom has been expressing their excitement about the connection between the two shows, with many speculating that the Defenders will start making their way into the MCU. It seems unlikely that one of the most terrifying Marvel villains would finally be introduced to the MCU only to be killed in his second television appearance. However, the comic book origin behind Maya (Alaqua Cox) and Fisk's confrontation hints that the Kingpin may eventually be back to get his revenge.
Echo spent the majority of Hawkeye looking for the Ronin, who she believed had killed her father. In Episode 5, "Ronin," Clint tells Echo that he had nothing to do with her father's death, and that it was the big boss who had him killed. She begins to doubt what she knew and questions Kazi about where he was on the night her father died, but drops it before he can realize she is suspicious.
Echo and Kingpin share the screen for the first time in Episode 6, "So This Is Christmas." Fisk wants to know what's been going on with her, but she tells him that she is going to stop chasing after the man who killed her father. Fisk feigns tenderness when he speaks to Maya about her father, but this attitude disappears once Maya leaves the room and Fisk tells Kazi that they need to do something about her.
Later in the episode, Kingpin has a confrontation with Kate Bishop that leaves him unconscious in a toy store. He manages to escape the toy store and winds up in an alleyway, where he comes across Echo. As she walks up to him with a gun, Kingpin starts off on a speech about being family and not always seeing eye to eye. Echo lifts the gun and the camera pans up towards the sky, and the sound of a gunshot goes off.
In 1998's Daredevil #15, Echo had a near identical confrontation with Kingpin. Unlike in Hawkeye, their meeting took place inside a wrestling ring. Fisk had tricked Maya into going after Daredevil by convincing her that Daredevil killed her father. She believed this until she found out that Daredevil was actually Matt Murdock, who would have been a child at the time her father died.
Murdock revealed that Kingpin had killed her dad, and she went to confront him. Kingpin attempted to manipulate her into forgiving him, but she shot him with the same gun that was used to kill her dad. She left Fisk in the ring in a pool of his own blood, and his body is later seen in the hospital as Murdock is leaving. The final page of the comic revealed that Kingpin was still alive, but blinded by a shot to the head. He continued to wreak havoc in the world of underground crime, and eventually regained his sight through reconstructive surgery.
Although Hawkeye might want viewers to believe that Kingpin is dead, this wouldn't be the first time that a character appeared to have died but came back again. It's very likely that Kingpin is still alive since Echo's shot takes place offscreen. Now that the MCU has confirmed that the Marvel Netflix shows take place in the same universe, there is potential for way more stories that link the Defenders with the Avengers.
Marvel announced in November that a spinoff series about Echo is currently in the works for Disney+ and will star Alaqua Cox as the lead. If Kingpin is indeed still alive, he could be returning to screens soon to get his revenge for Echo's attack. This would present a perfect opportunity to bring more Marvel characters into the MCU and even introduce Echo to Charlie Cox's Daredevil, who she briefly dated in the comics.
To see Kingpin's brief introduction into the MCU, Season 1 of Hawkeye is now streaming on Disney+.