Vincent D'Onofrio Was Worried He Would Have To Stop Playing Kingpin For One Reason

Vincent D'Onofrio loves portraying the Kingpin of Crime almost as much as audiences love watching him, and thankfully, it's gotten a lot easier for him to do so since "Daredevil." Whereas Marvel Studios previously required the actor to gain weight for the role, which he found exhausting and destructive, new technology finally allowed him to fully rely on special effects for "Echo" instead.

"The only thing that could have held me back would be if I just had to keep on putting on all that weight and keep it on," D'Onofrio told ComicBook.com. "I don't have to do that anymore, so I'm in the best shape I've been in a long time. I think [the muscle fat suits] finally work and feel right and look good. That helps a lot because it's not the healthiest thing in the world to keep putting weight on and taking it off again."

D'Onofrio added that he will happily play Kingpin until such a time that Marvel no longer requires his efforts, and the studio must be keen to engage the actor on his terms because the character is scheduled to become an ever greater threat on "Daredevil: Born Again" and make trouble for a different hero on "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man." It's also presumed that he will appear in the untitled "Spider-Man 4."

In "Echo" Episode 5's post-credits scene, the Kingpin of Crime sees a news report that suggests the citizens of New York City are interested in electing a political outsider as their next mayor and seems to register this information as useful just before the screen fades to black. If the plan is to follow the storyline in the comics, in which Wilson Fisk extends his criminal empire by winning the mayoral race, it's most likely that his campaign will take place during "Daredevil: Born Again."

But Daredevil (Charlie Cox) isn't the only street-level superhero who calls New York home, and there are other potential projects Vincent D'Onofrio could appear in besides "Spider-Man 4." If the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever takes another swing at "Luke Cage" or "Jessica Jones," for example, it would be logical for Kingpin to show up there as well. All this is to say, D'Onofrio is a powerhouse talent, and it would be wild for Marvel Studios to ignore his willingness to show up.