| Trading Places |
STREET FIGHTER
ECHO Marvel Studios’ new television series starring Alaqua Cox packs a powerful punch.
‘We want to show that these characters bleed’
SYDNEY FREELAND
Prepare for a gritty, bloody and rather violent surprise with Echo, the latest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The five-part series marks an exciting new era for Marvel Studios, with the show’s creative team promising a more mature and raw approach. Whether it’s the grisly splattering of blood during a street brawl or the gruesome snap of a victim’s neck in a bone-crunching death, this isn’t the family-friendly heroics of the past.
‘We knew the show was going to have a more grounded approach tonally, visually and aesthetically,’ explains Echo director and executive producer Sydney Freeland. ‘We knew we wanted to have much more of a street-level version of storytelling. When we were in the edit bay, we were playing with how far to push things. We’ve definitely done that.’
Exactly how far can you push the blood and violence on a Disney streamer? ‘We want to show that these characters bleed and these characters die,’ continues Freeland. ‘People get killed in our world. They don’t have a cool cosmetic scar and a little black eye. We wanted to lean into the visceral nature of that.’
Alaqua Cox returns as Maya Lopez/ Echo – a deaf Native American with killer combat skills. The character first appeared in 2021’s Hawkeye, where she went head-to-head with Jeremy Renner’s archer. In Echo, Maya is front and centre for an origin story that sees her return to her rural Oklahoma roots. ‘Alaqua was coming off just six days of work on Hawkeye,’ Freeland tells Teasers. ‘That was the sum total of her film experience. Then she comes to this set and leads the entire show with established actors like Vincent D’Onofrio and Charlie Cox. She’s incredible.’
In order to push the authenticity of the show’s more grounded tone, Marvel hired Native American and deaf staff as writers and consultants. This was key for Freeland, who learned American Sign Language alongside the cast and crew. ‘Representation is truly important to me,’ she explains. ‘I come from multiple marginalised communities. I’m Native American, and I’m transgender, so a deaf Native American character was something I was relishing to work on because I’m used to being misrepresented on film. For me, I wanted to know how we can do this authentically and accurately.’
With an Earth-based story and a more authentic tone, you might wonder how Echo fits into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. ‘In the pilot, you will see she is firmly planted in the MCU,’ confirms Freeland, whose show will be the first to be released under the new ‘Marvel Spotlight’ banner, signifying that no prior knowledge of MCU continuity will be needed. ‘But we’re branching off. We’re not going galactic. We’re not going cosmic. We’re not in Avengers Tower. We’re in Oklahoma. It’s great.’
ECHO STREAMS ON DISNEY+ FROM 10 JANUARY.