Sydney Freeland Explains Echo’s Character Development ”The Goal Was Never To Turn Her Into Captain America”

Tonight, ‘Echo’ arrives at Disney+, MCU’s “first” when it comes to several aspects. ‘Echo’ is the first MCU show under Marvel Spotlight banner, meaning that you don’t have to watch previous shows or movies connected to the character to understand it, and the story will be character-driven. Secondly, it’s also the first Disney+ show to receive TV-MA rating due to its violence and themes.

Fan’s are excited both due to Daredevil being an appearance here and there but also because it seems that Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpint will be da somewhat important element in the show. One thing that also makes Echo unique is that the show won’t be a redemption story, Maya Lopez started out as a villain and will ultimately end up a villain in the show as well. In the press conference, the director of ‘Echo’ Sydney Freeland explained why they decided to take ‘Echo’ in a completely different direction compared to most other MCU projects.

And you have Maya Lopez, you have Wilson Fisk, and you have this whole sort of New York criminal underworld as a jumping-off point. And so, you know, in the conversations early on, it was always talking about, like, hey, this is actually very interesting.

Freeland also explained what kind of character development we can expect and that Echo won’t be your typical anti-hero, since the show promises to be violent and borderline gory at times.

And the fact that she’s a villain. And so, the goal was never to try to turn her into, like, Captain America. Right? 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. And so, really, the tone and the visual style came from the story and the circumstances of the character.

The show will also further explain and show the connection between Echo and Kingpin and the fact that despite many limitations, Maya rose to the top of the criminal underworld.

One of the most interesting aspects about the character is the fact that she’s a villain in ‘Hawkeye,’ right? But then within that, once you start, sort of, pulling in that thread, then you look at where she comes from, right? 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.

The development of ‘Echo’ started back in 2021 when it was announced that ‘Hawkeye’ series will get its own spinoff centered on Maya Lopez. The project was practically unheard of for a long time, presumably being stuck in development hell, which kind of gave off vibes that Marvel studios didn’t care about it all that much. The fans were also highly skeptical because a seemingly irrelevant character to the grander scheme of things was getting its own show while plenty of other more interesting and developed characters were put to the sidelines and haven’t been used for years since their first appearance.

Now, 3 years later, we’re happy to say that ‘Echo’ is releasing soon, and we can’t wait to see what the hype is about. Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!

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