Echo is the first new entry in the MCU for 2024, and the series marks a major turning point for the franchise. The series is a spin-off from Hawkeye​​​​, with Alaqua Cox reprising her role as Maya Lopez, a.k.a. Echo. This is the first time a Marvel Cinematic Universe hero who originated in another Disney+ series is getting their own television series, though she will soon be followed by Agatha Harkness in Agatha: Darkhold Diaries. The series is the MCU’s first TV-MA series on Disney+, arriving just a few months before the rumored first R-rated MCU film Deadpool 3. It is also the launch of “Marvel Spotlight,” a new banner for MCU-related shows that are aimed at an older audience. Echo is a must-watch for Marvel fans.

Echo’s impressive trailer reminded viewers of the gritty adult-oriented action of past Marvel Netflix series like Daredevil and Jessica Jones, which made many fans pay attention to the new series. Two major voices behind the show’s tone and style are Sydney Freeland (director and executive producer) and Brad Winderbaum (executive producer). Both partook in a press conference to promote Echo, which MovieWeb attended. The duo shared how important it was for Echo to be respectful to the Choctaw Nation, how the character of Maya Lopez informed the rating of the series, and what the future holds for the Marvel Cinematic Universe now that it has gone mature.

Being Respectful to the Choctaw Nation

Sydney Freeland is an acclaimed Navajo filmmaker. Her feature film debut, Drunktown’s Finest, opened at Sundance in 2014. Freeland was inspired to write the film to combat the negative stereotypes around her hometown of Gallup, New Mexico, after a 20/20 segment branded the town “Drunk Town, USA” as a result of the increase in alcoholism on the border of the Navajo Nation. Stories centered on Native Americans are clearly something Freeland takes seriously, so it made her an ideal fit for Marvel Studios when they needed a filmmaker to tackle Echo.

Freeland took the job very seriously. “I think just for myself, representation wasn’t something that was ‘if.’ It was always something that was a necessity. I think one of the things that was important for us was being able to engage with the Choctaw Nation very early on.” She added:

“For myself, there were two things. One was to ask permission from the Choctaw Nation to be portrayed, ’cause I feel like a lot of times what happens with Native and Indigenous stories is that people come in, and they say, ‘We’re gonna tell you what story we’re gonna tell,’ and we wanted to take a different approach, and we wanted to engage you. So the second part was, ‘Can we create a dialogue?’ We want to hear, we want to be as authentic in our portrayal of the Choctaw language, the Choctaw culture, the Choctaw experience as we can. That came from the Choctaw Nation.”

While Freeland is an Indigenous filmmaker, she makes it clear that she is of a different tribe, so she wanted to ensure she was still respectful to another culture and tribe. “I’m Navajo, and we’re telling a Choctaw story, so for me, it was an absolute necessity that we engage the Choctaw Nation to tell that story,” says Freeland. “I think a lot of times, people tend to jumble all Native American tribes and cultures into this one big kind of monolith, and that’s not the case. Every tribe is different, every language is different, every culture has its own unique specificities.”

The Character of Echo
Marvel Studios

Echo is an interesting character to lead a Disney+ series. While the MCU has given a series to one of their most popular villains, Loki, that character had ten years of stories and had been transitioning to a more heroic figure for years. Maya Lopez, on the other hand, is a relatively new character to the MCU, and likely not one audiences had heard of before Hawkeye, or maybe even thought much about since Hawkeye ended in 2021.

Speaking about Maya Lopez as a character, Freeland says, “I think one of the most interesting aspects about the character is the fact that she’s a villain in Hawkeye. But then within that, once you start pulling that thread, then you look at where she comes from, and you look at, ‘Oh, this is a deaf, indigenous amputee girl from Oklahoma. How the hell does she end up being one of the top-ranking lieutenants in Kingpin’s army?’ and answering those questions was such an exciting place to be.” She adds:

Then, answering the question, ‘Well, what is that like when she goes back home?’ I think just for myself, being indigenous, being an American, it was such a fun and exciting place to be. Then, once you layer on the Choctaw cultural specifics onto that, it gives us a chance to tell a really fun story, you know?

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The Choctaw culture was a major way of distinguishing the series from the rest of the MCU, as similar cultural specificities helped make projects like Black Panther, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Ms. Marvel stand out in a sea of superhero projects. Echo is no different; as Freeland says, “I think one example of that is actually in the second episode of our series. We have a scene that I think I can honestly say has never been seen on film before, and we get a chance to visit pre-European-contact America, and that whole scene and sequence came as a direct result of working with the Choctaw Nation.”

What Made Echo Perfect for Marvel’s First TV-MA Series
Disney

Brad Winderbaum is the Head of Streaming, Television, and Animation at Marvel Studios. He has been with the studio since the early days, all the way back as the assistant to Louis D’Esposito (Marvel Studios’s co-president) on Iron Man. As he has helped guide the studio into the streaming age on Disney+, many were curious as to why Echo, a respected but niche character, who was a villain in Hawkeye, was getting her own Disney+ series.

Winderbaum reveals that it was Alaqua Cox herself that inspired them to move forward with Echo. “I think Marvel is at its best when the storytellers follow the character and let the character kind of lead the dance, lead the journey, and we knew, as soon as we cast Alaqua in Hawkeye and saw what she did on screen in that show that she would be an incredible character to follow into her journey.”

Marvel Studios projects have typically been PG-13 for films and TV-14 for Disney series, but Echo will break ground as the first major entry that is rated TV-MA. “Echo is a more adult show. It’s our first TV-MA show, but we didn’t set out to make a TV-MA show. We set out to make a Maya Lopez show, and this is a character who has a violent past, who’s dealt with some real trauma, who has really difficult decisions to make, and who ultimately has to confront people she loves in order to grow and change,” Winderbaum shares, adding:

In following this character, it created the tone. It created a grittier, more grounded story for the audience that just so happened to be more adult, more TV-MA. But it was always born from Maya as a character.

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Freeland echoes these sentiments regarding how Echo came to be a TV-MA series and how it was all rooted in the character of Maya Lopez. “Everything stems from a story, right? So, what is the character? Where are they coming from? Where are they going? What is the emotion? And so, in our case, we have Maya Lopez, who in Hawkeye is introduced as a villain. That was really our jumping-off point,” says Freeland.

“The fact that she’s a villain. The goal was never to try to turn her into, like, Captain America. In the conversations with Marvel, the response was like, hey, let’s lean into that. Let’s see if we can push it out a little. Let’s see how far we can go down that rabbit hole. The tone and the visual style came from the story and the circumstances of the character.”

Echo’s Future in the MCU
Marvel’s Echo Release Date January 9, 2024 Seasons 1

Echo kicks off a very interesting year for the MCU. Due to the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, many MCU stories that were originally set to debut in 2024, like Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts, were delayed into 2025, and the Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again, had to be reworked from the ground up. The 2024 MCU roster is filled with titles not based on big-name recognizable heroes but more niche characters and titles. Echo kicks off the year, which will later see Deadpool 3 (the biggest name but also an R-rated project that many younger viewers can’t see) and Agatha: Coven of Chaos. Notably, all three projects are based around anti-hero characters.

That also makes 2024 an exciting year for Marvel Studios. In many ways, it is similar to how Marvel Studios started out, having to turn B-list heroes like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor into stars since they did not have access to big names like Spider-Man. Now, Marvel Studios will have to rely on more characters that can break the mold from the same old superhero stories the MCU has been telling for over 15 years.

“In a way, Echo marks a new beginning for the studio. It’s a new tone for us,” says Winderbaum. “It is a truly grounded and emotional journey. Not just for the audience but certainly for all of us who are lucky to be behind the scenes. I have to say that, you know, through Sydney’s leadership on the production, we had to quote Devery [Jacobs], a real sense of community making this show. It was a nurturing, collaborative experience. And frankly, one of the best in my career.”

Related: Echo Star Vincent D’Onofrio Discusses Kingpin’s Role in the Series

Each MCU project has been greenlit to explore either a new character or to expand on the universe in some way. They’ve gone big as they have introduced underwater civilizations, space empires, and entirely new universes through the multiverse, but with Echo, Marvel Studios is showing that they can go small while maintaining what audiences love about the franchise. Winderbaum said:

“Marvel is such a big vast universe. The comics have been called, like, the greatest ongoing story that’s ever been written. Certainly, the longest. There are so many corners of the universe that are still unexplored, even today. Maya allowed us to see a corner of the MCU that hadn’t been seen before and to me, that is the future of Marvel. It is being able to tell stories that are unexpected, that operate on the fringe of what we’ve seen before, and are standalone, character-focused, and have a unique personality all their own.”

While Echo is seemingly designed to be a smaller, stand-alone project, the door always remains open for Maya Lopez to join the larger MCU. In the comics, she is a member of The Avengers and was even given the powers of the Phoenix Force. While she might not get that big of an upgrade, and the franchise will likely focus on the heroes that can be put on lunchboxes, it appears that the door remains open for Maya Lopez and the rest of the characters in Echo to return.

You can stream all episodes of Echo on Disney+ on Jan. 9, 2024 through the link below:

Stream on Disney+