MCU fans who still believe in a redemption arc are counting the hours until the release of Echo, Marvel's first TV show to receive a TV-MA rating. One of the characters we're looking forward to seeing once again is Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin. News of his return previously brought up some interesting questions given his fate in Hawkeye, but D'Onofrio has now cleared the air on this issue.
Fans who watched Hawkeye will recall Kingpin's final interaction with Maya Lopez/Echo. Though you don't see him actually die, the scene implies that Echo shoots Kingpin, and the conspicuous "eye to eye" remark from Kingpin suggests her bullet went through his eye. If that isn't enough proof, the Echo trailer depicts Kingpin with an eye patch on his left eye.
Addressing this issue, D'Onofrio spoke to TV Line, stating, "If you're a fan of Kingpin and Daredevil - the old comics - you know that Kingpin never dies. We just had to figure out a clever way of [moving] on from that shot towards the face and how we bring it into Echo, and we came up with a really cool thing. He does get hurt pretty bad."
Some less nerdy viewers may scream "plot armor," but this storyline is loosely adapted from Daredevil #15. After Lopez learns of Wilson Fisk's involvement in her father's death, she confronts him with a gun pointed to his face. Similar to the cliffhanger in Hawkeye, Lopez fires the gun at Kingpin, but you don't get to see a panel showing the actual shooting.