Hawkeye Almost Had A Different Big Bad, Let's Speculate About Who It Was
The final episodes of Marvel's "Hawkeye" pulled back the curtain on who the "big guy" was. As it turns out, he was not just a figurative big bad, but also a villain who is physically large and imposing. If you're not caught up on "Hawkeye," look away now, because the topic at hand is predicated on a spoiler.
In "Hawkeye," the "big guy" that our hero, Clint Barton, was worried about turned out to be none other than Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin. Vincent D'onofrio returned to reprise his role from Netflix's "Daredevil," and it made sense because "Hawkeye" had already introduced the character of Maya Lopez, aka Echo (Alaqua Cox), and she has history with Kingpin in the comics. However, according to director Rhys Thomas, who helmed the first two episodes of "Hawkeye" and the finale, Kingpin wasn't always in the cards. He told Variety:
"The Kingpin of it all was not on the cusp when I started the show, but I feel like his presence was never far. Like, we were always circling this other 'big bad guy,' but there was a moment when a Marvel executive came over and said, 'You know, this is what we're gonna do about that.' As far as a larger plan and a crossover with 'Spider-Man: No Way Home,' I did not know that they would do that. They do a wonderful job at Marvel of keeping everybody quite siloed, and I think they do this for your own security. People seem to sort of assume that there is this room where everything is all mapped out, but, no, they keep you kind of focused on your own show and only give you the information that they feel they need to give."
It Was Scorpion All Along?
Thomas' comments make it sound like Marvel just likes to keep members of its creative teams compartmentalized so that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing with regards to certain spoilers. "Hawkeye" notably billed itself as "A Kevin Feige Production," and Feige has been the one overseeing the Marvel Cinematic Universe since its inception, with various directors and showrunners coming and going. Jonathan Igla is the showrunner of "Hawkeye," so it's possible that he may have been in on the Kingpin knowledge sooner than Thomas.
It's also possible that they were working things out with D'onofrio and that Kingpin wasn't finalized as the villain until late in the process. Honestly, I have no idea who else they could have gotten to be the big bad on "Hawkeye," since the late reveal would only have impact if it was someone who already existed in the MCU. It would have to be a New York-based street villain, so they could have always toyed with the idea of bringing back someone else from the Netflix Marvel shows or even the "Spider-Man" movies.
Off the top of my head, two of the only living characters who would match that description are Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) and Mac Gargan (Michael Mando), who were in prison together when last we saw them at the end of "Spider-Man: Homecoming." Gargan is the alter ego of the supervillain Scorpion in the comics, and he would fit the bill of a bald "big bad" like Kingpin. But like Toomes, who has an upcoming appearance in "Morbius," he might be tied up in Sony's future plans, so really, your guess is as good as mine.
"Hawkeye" wraps up Marvel's inaugural slate of 2021 shows on Disney+, so in absence of any better ideas, I'm going to reach back to the first of those shows, "WandaVision," and pose a Marvel-appropriate "what if" question. What if the big guy on "Hawkeye" was, in fact, a gal? What if it was Agatha all along?