The Kingpin Scene In Daredevil That Went Too Far
A brief appearance of Charlie Cox's lawyer-vigilante Matt Murdock in "Spider-Man: No Way Home" in December 2021 was very exciting for most Marvel fans, as there had been rumors circulating about his return to the MCU for some time after "Daredevil" wrapped its three-season run on Netflix. The return of Cox as Daredevil — which proved Kevin Feige's comments to CinemaBlend about the character's future in the MCU to be true — came on the heels of a similarly exciting "Daredevil"-related revelation that occurred two days before "No Way Home" hit theaters. On December 15, the Marvel Disney+ series "Hawkeye" released Episode 5, "Ronin," which revealed to fans that Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin was involved with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld)'s mother, Eleanor (Vera Farmiga).
The return of Kingpin (and Daredevil, to be fair) was a reminder to fans of just how intriguing things can get when this character is around. "Daredevil," the show that introduced many fans to these characters, was the first of the canceled Marvel Netflix shows, and it had quite the well-received run before ending after an intense Season 3. The show has an overall 92% fresh critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, and the third season sits at 97%. This was likely, amongst many other things, attributed to the amazing performances from Cox and D'Onofrio. Ultimately, Season 3 led to a very emotional and very bloody final confrontation between the two characters — although "Daredevil" has certainly never shied away from gore or brutality.
Although it was never quite as graphic as other superhero shows, like Amazon entries "The Boys" or "Invincible," there were certainly some scenes that took it too far. One of those scenes focuses on a particular kill executed by D'Onofrio's Kingpin in the very first season of "Daredevil."
Kingpin goes too far killing a former Russian ally in Season 1
During Season 1 of "Daredevil," Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, quickly becomes a central antagonist as Matt Murdock's (Charlie Cox) vigilantism as Daredevil becomes a massive impediment to his operations. Therefore, two Russian brothers that work for Fisk, Anatoly (Gideon Emery) and Vladimir Ranskahov (Nikolai Nikolaeff), take it upon themselves to stop Daredevil — a plan which ultimately fails. Anatoly then interrupts Fisk's date with his love, Vanessa Marianna (Ayelet Zurer), to talk business, which deeply irritates the crime boss. Anatoly's transgression results in him and Fisk taking a drive to a secluded part of the city, where Fisk then beats up Anatoly before smashing his head in a car door repeatedly.
D'Onofrio spoke about the car door decapitation scene specifically in an August 2020 interview with ComicBook.com, where he explained that keeping the brutality and gore of what it was helped reassure the actor that this was the show that he signed onto. He wanted it to be dark, gritty, and brutal and was afraid that they might "soften it up." Even though this was a nice confirmation for D'Onofrio on his role as Kingpin, it still makes us a little bit queasy.
Fans had a visceral reaction to this Kingpin scene
Fans saw, well, everything in that "Daredevil" scene, leading to lots of discussion on Reddit. In an April 2015 Reddit post, u/blockdmyownshot remarked that this Kingpin scene left them "shocked at how graphic they were gonna take the show," and they went on to say, "Once I saw the brain slink to the ground I was like, 'Alright, so that's how it's gonna be.'" Elsewhere in the thread, u/Slapyatwice also touched on the graphic nature of the scene, asking simply, "Anyone else watch this with their eyes closed?"
An October 2015 Reddit thread posted by u/kush_daz, some "Daredevil" fans even went as far as to say that it was one of the most gruesome things they had ever seen in a television show. Redditor u/Kalse12229 said, "The fact you never see the actual decapitation and just the brains leaking out makes the whole thing worse than if we did see it." It's true, the scene really does show everything, reflecting not only Fisk's incredible strength and rage but also the tone of his brutality moving forward.