Vincent D'Onofrio Discusses His Relationship With The Kingpin's Most Eye-Catching Feature Over the Years

Key Takeaways

Daredevil: Born Again brings iconic characters from the Netflix era to the MCU with a new beginning.
Vincent D’Onofrio sheds light on transforming into Kingpin and discusses the use of fat suits.
D’Onofrio’s dedication to the role and methods for playing Kingpin contributes to his prominence in the MCU.

Daredevil: Born Again has taken on the goodwill of the Netflix-era Marvel shows and seeks to port it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and along with it has brought along one of that franchise’s most iconic characters with much easier requirements.

Daredevil garnered a lot of success when it debuted on Netflix, spawning a lot of shows and crossovers that would come to define Marvel on the small screen for years. This success was due in large part to the performances, with leading man Charlie Cox embodying the main character and others bringing their own characters to the fore as well. One prominent example was Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin, an antagonist so iconic that he became a marquee feature of the MCU reboot Daredevil: Born Again alongside Cox.

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As reported by Popverse, D’Onofrio would give fans a retrospective on his transformation to play the character in his recent DragonCon appearance, where he also discussed one of Daredevil: Born Again’s most fundamental aspects. After briefly prefacing his story with the assertion that it “is not that fucking interesting,” D’Onofrio proceeded to give the crowd a pretty interesting look into what it took to play the now-iconic character. “…Jeph Loeb was interested in me playing Fisk, and I knew who Fisk was. I had a couple of Daredevils and I had a lot of Spider-Man comics when I was young,” D’Onofrio revealed. “I knew that I would have to put on weight to do it, I put on about 40 pounds or so for that first Netflix show. I never stopped exercising and doing my normal exercises and stuff. I bulked up and got….let’s face it…lovely and fat, which I thought was amazing. I loved it, because I could eat all the carbs and dairy I wanted. The three seasons took almost five years, and that was intense. I kept that weight on for all that time. In between I was doing Jurassic World and Magnificent Seven. I was saying to directors, ‘My guy is going to be a big dude.’”

What I learned during Hawkeye is that they have these new suits that make you look like you’re big. It’s the first time they ever looked real to me under clothes. They used it on Thor when he gains the weight. That was also prosthetics and CGI combined. They did start making these amazing suits that NASA makes and they contour to all your muscles, and they just extend your actual muscle form to bigger. It’s really nice and they’re really light. They weigh as much as a sneaker. But they’re hot. They’re warm, but they’re not heavy. I said I should start wearing those instead of having this weight on. During Hawkeye I started to take the weight off and I wore the big suit. And then when Echo came around I was already getting very close to my original shape again, and having my weight off. It took a while because I’m older.

While many fans can appreciate the difficulty in dropping weight for a role, few people that haven’t tried it for themselves can understand the difficulty in putting it on as well. D’Onofrio’s dedication to the role, taking on the proper stature even to the detriment of other potential signings, is a great indicator of the attitude that’s made him so effective and enjoyable as the character. The star then revealed to fans how that discovery had changed his “I wore a suit in Echo, which was also fantastic,” D’Onofrio explained, referencing the MCU show that helped set up his future Kingpin appearances. “Now I’m just able to do my regular routine and wear these suits that are amazing. In the new series I’m wearing the suit, and it’s incredible. We play with makeup a little bit too to make my face look rounder. I’ve seen a few of the episodes now of the new season, and it works really well. I think you’ll be happy.”

In his short period in the MCU, D’Onofrio’s Kingpin has become just as prominent as Cox’s Daredevil because of his dedication to playing the role convincingly and his outspoken approach to fans. If the MCU is indeed adapting Devil’s Reign, then fans can look forward to the character and the man (and fat suit) behind him appearing in a far more prominent role that could be just the thing the MCU needs to make a real transition to the sort of street-level stories that the franchise seems eager to tell.

Daredevil: Born Again is set to premiere on Disney+ in March 2025.