How Marvel's Echo Marks A Lot Of Firsts For The Franchise
There were two prevailing takeaways from the "Hawkeye" series on Disney+. The first was that Florence Pugh makes everything better, even when all she does is show up and eat macaroni and cheese for a scene. (She also does some fighting because, y'know, it is a superhero show.) The other was that Alaqua Cox's portrayal of the deaf Native American Tracksuit Mafia mercenary Maya Lopez was incredibly compelling and that the character herself was more than deserving of a spinoff series.
That's exactly what we're getting with "Echo," a series that follows Maya as she evades her crime boss "uncle" Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio), and his forces after that whole "shooting him" thing on "Hawkeye." The show's trailers have teased it as a return to the violent, so-called "street-level" drama of Marvel's Netflix series, complete with appearances by Fisk and a certain Devil of Hell's Kitchen. But more than that, "Echo" is about Maya reconnecting with her Native American roots in her hometown in Oklahoma, making it something of a cross between "Daredevil" and "Reservation Dogs." The show even features multiple actors from Sterlin Harjo's fantastic dramedy series, including Zahn McClarnon (reprising his role as Maya's late father from "Hawkeye"), Devery Jacobs, and Graham Greene.
"In a way, 'Echo' has almost been like a secret," said executive producer and Marvel Studios' Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation, Brad Winderbaum, speaking in an interview posted on Disney's official website. "It's been fun and crazy to see all of the speculation around 'Echo' over the last year — and in a void of any information, people's imaginations just run wild with what it is and what it isn't," he added. Indeed, on top of offering more representation for Indigenous Americans, "Echo" might be the thing the Marvel Cinematic Universe desperately needs right now: something truly different.
Echo wants to punch Marvel in the face
Okay, perhaps Marvel Studios' past year wasn't quite the fall of Rome as some folks have made it out to be. Nevertheless, 2023 was an undeniably rough period for the House of Ideas — one that saw several MCU releases misfire in some manner while Marvel Studios itself paid the price for prioritizing quantity over quality since 2020 (leading the studio to dramatically overhaul its deeply flawed approach to making Disney+ series in particular). The hope is that it will course-correct in 2024, potentially making "Echo" the perfect flagship to lead the MCU into the future.
Winderbaum is certainly doing his job as a hype-man, calling "Echo" a "real renegade within the MCU" and "a bit of a punch in the face." It's also a show that marks a lot of "firsts" for the MCU, like all its episodes dropping at once on both Disney+ and Hulu. That and the TV-MA series — a first for MCU Disney+ shows — will be released under Marvel Spotlight, a banner that will focus on stories that don't require an in-depth knowledge of the greater MCU to understand (although they will still connect to other MCU titles, so we'll see how that goes).
Continuing, Winderbaum teased the show's "aggressive storytelling," which he said "makes the binge model feel appropriate." That goes double for the TV-MA rating, which he argued feels right for Maya ("She's a martial artist on a motorcycle who kicks a ton of ass!") and the criminal world she grew up in. Winderbaum also emphasized the idea of Maya being more complicated than other MCU heroes. "[Director and executive producer Sydney Freeland's] vision was to create an unapologetic character who has a lot to learn — and in the course of the story, she certainly does," he added.
Can Echo help the MCU grow up?
There's always going to be a place for MCU projects geared toward a family audience; this is still a Disney franchise, after all. But just as younger generations need to have stories that speak to them directly, the MCU needs to grow up and start offering stories for those who have spent the last 15 years engaging with MCU media. It's been happening in fits and bursts over time, going back to Marvel's Netflix series and other relatively older-skewing shows from the now-defunct Marvel Television (like "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." and "Agent Carter"). However, with "Echo" and the upcoming R-rated films "Deadpool 3" and "Blade," the MCU has a chance to pick up from where those shows left things and prove it still has the potential to be culturally relevant.
With its focus on a character who's far less morally clear-cut than other Marvel protagonists, Winderbaum sees "Echo" as the show that could help bridge the gap between the current MCU and viewers who are more inclined to watch FX series like "The Bear" and "Fargo" on Hulu. "The fact that it's TV-MA made us feel like a co-release could be a great way to platform it because while 'Echo' reaches the core Marvel audience on Disney+, it also has something to offer to the audience that's on Hulu — to people who are used to watching shows on FX, or shows that are a little more hard-hitting," he noted. We will find out if he's correct when "Echo" begins streaming tonight at 9 pm EST on Disney+.