Marvel Studios’ Echo is shaping up to be the edgiest thing it’s done recently, and it’s not shy about letting its audience know. it dropped a teaser for the upcoming Disney+ show on Instagram, but it came with a catch: all the violent scenes were blurred out with a “sensitive content” tag.
Echo is centered around Marvel Comics character Maya Lopez, a Native American hailing from the Cheyenne Nation. Born deaf, Echo takes on the role of a superhero with the ability to perfectly mimic any action or skill she observes (she’s basically the Kakashi of the Marvel Universe).
In the comics, Echo has a complex history that sees her start off as a villain before making a transition into a hero. Due to her ties to the criminal underworld and her connections to characters like Daredevil and Kingpin, her portrayal in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be interesting to watch.
This might explain why her show will kickstart Marvel Spotlight, the new banner that’s dedicated to shedding the spotlight on the lesser-known heroes of the Marvel Universe. Fortunately, fans of the MCU have been promised a dark, raw, and gritty show that comes with a TV-MA rating.
Director Sydney Freeland discussed the show’s mature rating, stating, “Because we’re dealing with a story that is more street-level, it is a little more grounded and a little more visceral. We’re leaning into the TV-MA aspect of it. One of the big things when I first came on was talking to Marvel and saying, ‘Well, she’s a villain in Hawkeye, and to me that’s the most interesting thing about her.’ And their response was, ‘Let’s lean into that, let’s explore that.'”
Having directed episodes of other mature TV shows like Fear the Walking Dead and Reservation Dogs, Freeland has a good grasp of what audiences want to see in a gritty story such as Echo.
Sounding like a Quentin Tarantino flick, Freeland spoke about pitching ideas for the show, saying, “As we progressed through the production, I had the chance to say, ‘Okay so what if this guy gets his head smashed onto the table, and actually loses a couple of teeth?’ That’s the character and that’s the world: She’s a criminal and she’s a villain, she’s killing people. And the response was, ‘Yeah, let’s try it!'”
Honestly, I am surprised that Freeland didn’t get any grief from Marvel about making Echo darker. After all, this is the same studio that turned Daredevil into the butt of an unfunny joke in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. However, it seems Marvel has turned over a new leaf, even going as far as casting a deaf actress, Alaqua Cox, for the role of Maya Lopez.
At any rate, it would be criminal to give a show that has Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in it anything other than a TV-MA rating. Thank heavens common sense prevailed here. Echo will premiere on Disney+ and Hulu on January 9.
