Marvel’s ‘Echo’ Star Vincent D’Onofrio Offers His Take On Kingpin’s Ending In Disney Plus Series: “I Don’t Think He’s Changed; I Think He’s Enlightened”
While most fans walked away from the season finale of Marvel’s Echo utterly disappointed with how the Disney Plus series reduced Wilson Fisk to nothing more than a literal blubbering mass, the character’s actor Vincent D’Onofrio – whether through his own honest opinion or at the direction of his employers – has posited that rather than the Kingpin’s breakdown being one of fear, it was rather one of ‘enlightenment’.
For those who have not seen Echo – you lucky dogs, you – the moment in question unsurprisingly comes at the conclusion of the series’ fifth and finale episode, Maya.
Therein, after finding that the titular heroine has rejected his offer to come back to New York and take over his criminal empire as its new ‘Queenpin’, Fisk decides to teach his former protégé a lesson by kidnapping and killing her grandmother and cousin.
However, before he can make good on the latter half of his plan, he and his men are interrupted by Maya, herself newly empowered by the spirits of her female Choctaw ancestors, who proceeds to use her new abilities to wipe the floor with Fisk and his men.
Eventually emerging victorious, Maya closes out the fight by bringing the Kingpin to his knees and hitting him with what can best be described as the Choctaw equivalent of Ghost Rider’s ‘Penance Stare’, a channeled blast of her mother’s healing powers which she uses to ‘heal’ the emotional trauma he suffered due to his abusive childhood.
Reduced to tears, Kingpin ultimately responds to his newfound mental state by screaming at Maya “What did you do?!” before immediately – and this is not an exaggeration, the scene literally cuts from his screaming to this moment – running into his nearby vehicle and demanding through more sobbing that his men immediately take him away from the situation.
Making his return in the series’ post-credit scene, Fisk is ultimately seen returning to New York on his private jet where, after watching a news report regarding the city’s upcoming mayoral race, he finds himself inspired to run for local office.
Yet, while all signs suggested that his character had walked away from this fight a changed, repentant, and even remorseful pile of internalized guilt, the aforementioned D’Onofrio has opined that, at least in his opinion, this was not the case.
Asked by The Hollywood Reporter’s Brian Davids as to whether or not he thought “[Maya’s] powers somehow had a hand in his decision to run for mayor?”, the actor asserted, “No, I don’t think that.”
“I want to do the right thing here and say something that is true, but not too revealing,” he continued. “I don’t think he’s changed; I think he’s enlightened. I haven’t seen a lot of the episodes of Echo. So, in my mind, after everything goes down with Maya, he gets on a plane, and the news is playing on the plane. It says, ‘New York is going to be looking for a new mayor soon,’ and as he’s watching it, a light bulb goes on.”
“So, by the end of that flight, he decides, “If I want to be all powerful, this is what I’m going to do,’ concluded D’Onofrio. “That’s the most I can tell you.”
Ultimately, how this development shakes out ultimately remains to be seen when Fisk makes his return in Marvel’s upcoming Daredevil: Born Again, which is currently on track to roll onto Disney Plus sometime in January 2025.
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