The Hawkeye Episode 6 Moment That Has MCU Fans Divided
Contains spoilers for the finale of "Hawkeye"
Disney+ has completely opened up the door for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to expand even more thanks to its live-action Marvel series. The genius of these shows is the way showrunners implement former events from the MCU and the Marvel comics to expand on the stories of characters who, at one time, played a supporting role in the films. Disney+'s latest series "Hawkeye" is all about Jeremy Renner's Clint Barton and Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop. The story allowed for Renner's bow-and-arrow-wielding character to mentor and partner alongside Bishop, and helped lay the groundwork for future stories in the MCU.
Disney+ aired the season finale of "Hawkeye" this week, ending the series after just six episodes. The fifth episode came with the shocking return of Vincent D'Onofrio's portrayal of Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin from Netflix's "Daredevil" series. But now that the story has wrapped up, some MCU fans are divided over the way Fisk's story played out in the series.
Is Kingpin actually dead?
Barton and Bishop came out victorious at the end of "Hawkeye," succeeding in bringing down Kate's mom Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga), who was working with the infamous crime boss Fisk. Eleanor was arrested, but Alaqua Cox's Maya Lopez was ultimately the one to bring Kingpin down. Kate and Kingpin went head-to-head, but his own niece Lopez was seeking revenge after learning that Fisk was responsible for her father's death. She pointed a gun at Fisk while he begged for mercy. However, Lopez appeared to shoot him off-screen, which left fans on the Reddit page r/MarvelStudioSpoilers with mixed reactions.
A large amount of the fandom believes that Kingpin somehow survived, especially considering that he made it out alive after battling worse. User u/KingChickenSandwich reminded fans of Kingpin's endurance. "You see how he tanked those arrows? Kingpin won't die, it'll just be another way for him to re-enter the shadows," they wrote.
Another Redditor, u/roacho_72, pointed out that Lopez killing Kingpin was taken straight from the Marvel comics that introduced her story. They went on to say, "Obviously the MCU and comics are different, but I bet he's not dead. The homage to this comic is clearly on purpose."
Hawkeye fans aren't happy about Kingpin's short run
Other "Hawkeye" fans are in support of the idea that Kingpin didn't die, as it wouldn't make sense for Marvel to hype up his return so much just to kill him off after one episode. U/ICookTheBlueStuff expressed their conflicted feelings over the finale, writing "There is a lot of great and really fun stuff in it, but their decisions with Kingpin are baffling. Either they legitimately made the worst decision in MCU history or they did a lame fake out. Either way it's unsatisfying."
Other fans, like u/TheGent316, believe that the showrunners should have implemented Kingpin throughout the six episodes, rather than only including him at the end. "If he'd been a character throughout Maya's story that ending would have felt more earned," they wrote.
Fans also pointed out that Lopez's character is getting a spin-off with Disney+'s upcoming "Echo" series, and Fisk's fake death could play a major role. U/olgil75 wrote, "surely he will play a part in ["Echo"] given his connection to the character." We will likely have to wait for the premiere of "Echo" to find out Fisk's true fate, but regardless, the cliffhanger has left fans at odds.