Warning: SPOILERS for Echo are ahead!
The entirety of Echo is now available to stream with both a Disney+ subscription and a Hulu subscription, and while the show’s chief purpose was to obviously point the spotlight on Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez, it also laid some key groundwork for one of the especially-anticipated upcoming Marvel TV shows. In addition to Charlie Cox’s Daredevil briefly appearing in the first episode, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin, plays a key supporting role throughout the miniseries. Despite his surrogate niece attempting to kill him at the end of Hawkeye, he tried to reconcile with her in this new series, albeit on his own twisted terms, and it’s a goal he fails to accomplish.
In true Kingpin fashion, Fisk doesn’t take it well when Maya refuses to come back to New York with him, leading to him trying to kill her grandmother and cousin. He doesn’t succeed with this either, but he nonetheless escaped, and the stage is now set for him to return as one of the leading characters in Daredevil: Born Again’s cast. In fact, the Echo mid-credits scene confirming a major Kingpin rumor gives me a good idea on how this next chapter of the MCU’s Daredevil saga will incorporate Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher, who was confirmed to appear in early 2023.
Where We Leave Off With Kingpin In Echo
After avoiding the local authorities in Tamaha, Oklahoma, Wilson Fisk gets aboard his private jet in Echo’s final minutes and immediately starts playing damage control with one of his subordinates as they fly back to New York. However, he’s soon distracted by a news report about how there’s no clear frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race. The reporters in the broadcast talk about how “most voters want someone who is a fighter” and understand their pain and frustrations. Basically, a “bare-knuckle brawler”/“outsider” would do well, and while such a candidate would be joining the race quite late, there’s still a “window of opportunity.” You can practically see the gears turning in Fisk’s head as he’s watching TV.
Wilson Fisk was mayor of the Big Apple in the main Marvel Comics universe a few years back, and he used his political power to ban superhero vigilantes, which culminated in the events of the Devil’s Reign crossover. More importantly, back in May 2023, when Daredevil: Born Again had just started filming, Vincent D’Onofrio was photographed posing with some fans on set, and an American flag pin was observed on his suit. Since this is something political candidates often wear while running for office, this seemingly strengthened the rumors that had been running around for months that Born Again will see him running for Mayor of New York City.
Now we know for a fact that political aspirations lie on the horizon for him, although exactly how this will be handled in Daredevil: Born Again remains to be seen. Maybe we will simply see Wilson Fisk run for mayor as has already been speculated, or perhaps as part of Born Again’s major creative overhaul, he’ll already have been elected to the office. Either way, I’m believe this is going to put him back in The Punisher’s scopes.
How Punisher May Fit Into Daredevil: Born Again’s Story
Between Cox, D’Onofrio and Bernthal all reprising their Marvel roles that originated on Netflix, Daredevil footage being used in promotional material for Echo, and Wilson Fisk revealing in this miniseries that he killed his father with a hammer when he was a boy, just like what was shown in Daredevil, it’s reasonable to assume at this point that the events of The Man Without Fear’s earlier show (and by extension the other Netflix era shows) are canon within the main MCU reality.
As such, The Punisher we’ll be seeing in Daredevil: Born Again is the same one who crossed paths with Wilson Fisk at Ryker’s Island during Daredevil Season 2. The last time they saw each other, Fisk, who was controlling the prison by this point, arranged for Frank to escape, as he felt the gun-toting vigilante would be put to good use eliminating his competition on the outside. However, Frank promised that the next time he saw Fisk, he’d kill him.
Presuming that the events of Daredevil Season 3 coincided with Frank Castle being kept busy with other matters at some point during The Punisher’s two-season run, it’s understandable why Frank didn’t pop his head in during those batch of episodes and try to gun him down as the crime lord rose back to power. But now these two are once again appearing in the same show, and if Frank wasn’t already mulling taking Kingpin out, I have to think learning the man’s either running for mayor or already been elected to the job will make him a new priority on his to-kill list.
It stands to reason that Matt Murdock won’t trust that Wilson Fisk has the city’s best interests at heart, and he’ll be keeping a close eye on what his arch-nemesis will do as mayor. But Matt’s also a vigilante who won’t kill his enemies, whereas Frank Castle has no such qualms; it’s his whole MO! I’m fairly certain that during Daredevil: Born Again, we’ll see Frank attempt to murder Fisk if not once, then on multiple occasions, and Matt will be placed in the difficult position of having to intervene. Even though he’s opposed to almost everything Fisk stands for, Matt also doesn’t condone Frank’s lethal crimefighting methods, so he’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that the assassination doesn’t happen.
But here’s where things could get really problematic. I wouldn’t be surprised if Frank Castle targeting Wilson Fisk results in the latter championing having costumed heroes banned in New York City, just like his comic book counterpart did. In other words, we’d be getting an MCU-style twist on Devil’s Reign. Granted, since there’s been no mention of characters like Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist or even Spider-Man appearing in Born Again, this would be a much smaller-scale adaptation, with Daredevil and The Punisher being the only vigilantes immediately affected.
Although Vincent D’Onofrio confirmed earlier this month that Daredevil: Born Again will resume filming soon, we’re still in the dark on when the show will premiere on Disney+. So it will likely be a while until my musings on The Punisher’s specific role in this new series are confirmed or debunked, though either way, count on him leaving a large body count in his wake, just like what Jon Bernthal’s version of the character did in the Netflix days.
