Echo Director Sydney Freeland Says Her Experience With Marvel Was "Overwelmingly Positive"

The final Marvel Cinematic Universe projects of 2023 are right around the corner with Loki's season two finale and The Marvels both being released next week. However, fans won't have to wait long for the first 2024 installment of the franchise, which is the Hawkeye spinoff, Echo. The series is debuting in January on Disney+ and Hulu, and follows Maya Lopez (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." ComicBook.com attended a trailer event for Echo, and director and executive producer Sydney Freeland opened up about the series and revealed what it was like working with Marvel Studios. 

"Yeah, I got to say my experience was overwhelmingly positive," Freeland said of working with Marvel Studios. "I've got my producing partners in the back and our executive team, and it was a difficult, absolutely, it's the most difficult thing I've ever done. And you hear the stuff about how crazy and hectic it can be, and there's definitely truth to that. But the one thing I can say is that they protect the sh*t out of their creatives. And I felt absolutely protected and empowered, which is rare for a project of this scope and size. I've done a lot of TV work and I've done shows where they're like, 'No, every word has to be that. Every word has to be exactly.' ... So no, an incredible amount of creative empowerment." 

Is Daredevil in Echo?

In 2021, Hawkeye introduced Maya Lopez/Echo and focused on her relationship with her "uncle," Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. D'Onofrio's Kingpin was first introduced in Netflix's Daredevil series alongside Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock/Daredevil. It's been confirmed that both actors will appear in Echo ahead of their own reboot, Daredevil: Born Again, which recently had some shakeups. During the trailer event for Echo, Freeland confirmed that Echo is a villain and teased a showdown with Daredevil.

"I dunno if I can say this, but I love the Netflix Daredevil, it's great," Freeland shared when asked if the intent of Echo was to follow the Defenderverse. "And so we certainly took, obviously the Daredevil fight, it was a little bit of a nod to that series ... But then also we wanted very adamantly to show that these are people in our show. 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. So I guess to answer your question, it was a conversation, but it wasn't that reason." 

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