Echo Director Confirms You Don't Need To Watch Other Marvel Shows To Understand the New Series

Echo is heading to Disney+ and Hulu in January, and the new Marvel Studios series will feature some familiar faces. The show follows Maya Lopez/Echo (Alaqua Cox) as she "struggles to reconnect with her Native American roots while balancing aspirations tied to a life of crime as successor to the brutal legacy of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) AKA Kingpin." Maya was first introduced in Hawkeye, and D'Onofrio is best known for Daredevil. It was previously confirmed that Echo will feature the MCU's next appearance by Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Despite Echo, Daredevil, and Kingpin all appearing in previous Marvel shows, Echo's director and executive producer Sydney Freeland says you don't need to watch anything else to understand the events of the upcoming series.  

"Yeah, our hope is that you don't need to have seen any other Marvel show before because – so obviously we have to establish ourselves in the MCU – but then we quickly make our own path," Freeland shared at an Echo press event attended by ComicBook.com. "So it is tough because I've seen so much of the market content, I'm so familiar with Hawkeye. It was something we're very conscious of, I'll say that much. But the goal is that, hopefully, you don't have to have seen anything coming into this." 

What Is Echo Rated?

It sounds like Echo will have more in common with the Defenderverse than Marvel's Disney+ shows. Not only is Echo going to be released all at once, but it will be Marvel's first Disney+ series that will be released simultaneously on Hulu. Echo will also be Marvel's first Disney+ series to be rated TV-MA.

 "It's our first TV-MA show, so it's a little on the grittier side for Marvel," executive producer Brad Winderbaum recently told members of the press at the trailer event for Echo. "And I think again, shows kind of the breadth of what Marvel's capable of. And certainly something, again, if you know the comics and know the history, it feels very in line, but is kind of a new direction for the brand, especially on Disney+. And to that end, it's going to be, for many reasons, going to be simultaneously released on Disney+ and Hulu."  

"We wanted very adamantly to show that these are people in our show," Freeland explained. "They bleed, they die, they get killed, and there are real-world consequences. And again, talking, it's not the fate of the universe at stake because I think once you go that broad, you can sort of lose sight a little bit. And so that kind of dictated the tone a little bit."

Echo is being released on Disney+ and Hulu on January 10th. The show will leave Hulu on April 9th.