Echo's MCU Timeline Explained

Marvel's Echo confirms through various clues that the series takes place in 2025.

By Nicole Drum

Marvel's Echo is now streaming on Disney+ with the five-episode series focusing on Maya Lopez's story. With the character first introduced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021's Hawkeye — where she learned the truth about her father's death and turned on Wilson Fisk/Kingpin — audiences have been trying to place exactly where in the overall (and sometimes convoluted) MCU timeline Echo takes place. Fortunately, the series does a good job, save for one confusing detail, of breaking down where in the timeline its story takes place. Let's break it down.

Warning: spoilers for Marvel's Echo beyond this point. Read on only if you want to know.

Much of Echo — particularly the first episode — weaves flashbacks of Maya's life along with her actions in the present day. It's in this first episode that viewers are shown why and how Maya ended up in New York City with her father as a child, but also refreshes viewers memory of Maya's experiences during Hawkeye, at the end of which it clearly notes that the "present-day" events of Maya take place specifically "5 months later". With Hawkeye set in December 2024, the five-month time jump for Maya's story puts it taking place around May 2025.

Where Does Echo's Timeline Place It In The Overall MCU?

With Echo taking place around May 2025 based on the five-month jump from Hawkeye, this puts the series between Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is generally accepted to take place sometime in 2025 and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law also takes place around 2025 (with its story spanning late 2024 into 2025.) This generally means that events in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, She-Hulk, and Echo are happening, at least in part, around the same time as one another.

Could Echo Take Place In 2027?

While Echo makes its timeline fairly clear due to the "5 months later" jump from the events of Hawkeye which saw Maya shoot Kingpin and, in Echo, see her return to her hometown of Tamaha, Oklahoma, presumably on the run, there is one detail from the series that has audiences questioning the 2025 placement.

It's established in the episode that Maya and her father William leave Tamaha for New York City following the car accident that cost Maya her leg and killed her mother in 2007 when Maya was only seven years old. Upon Maya's return to Tamaha in the present day, there are different points where characters note that Maya hasn't been back home in 20 years.  An exact 20-year calculation from Maya's departure would make the series set in 2027. However, what is most likely is that everyone is simply rounding up — it's much more colloquially fitting for people to say that Maya has been gone for 20 years rather than calculate out the exact number of years, which is 18.

So, while it would be easy to just assume the show is being literal and it really is 2027 despite the five-month jump established in Episode 1, there is another clue that the series is actually set in 2025 — and it comes in the series' post-credits scene. In that scene, Kingpin is seen on his private jet heading back to New York when a news broadcast catches his attention. The broadcast is about the New. York City mayoral election and how a candidate hasn't really established themselves. While the pundits talk about what sort of candidate the city needs, Kingpin is very interested — something that has Marvel fans hopeful that an adaption of the Mayor Fisk storyline from comics is coming. It's certainly an interesting tease that sets up future story, but it does something else: it firmly plants Echo in the 2025 setting as the next New York mayoral election is in 2025. The next election after 2025 would be in 2029 as the mayoral election takes place every four years (the last real-world New York City mayoral election took place in 2021), which in turn means that if Echo were set in 2027, that Mayor Fisk tease wouldn't make any sense.

All Episodes Of Echo Are Now Streaming On Disney+

Starring Alaqua Cox, all five episodes of Echo debuted exclusively on both Disney+ and Hulu on Tuesday, January 9th. The origin story of Echo revisits Maya Lopez, whose ruthless behavior in New York City catches up with her in her hometown. She must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots, and embrace the meaning of family and community if she ever hopes to move forward. Vincent D'Onofrio will reprise his role as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin, and Charlie Cox will reprise his role as Matt Murdock / Daredevil. Echo will also star Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, Cody Lightning, Graham Greene, and Zahn McClarnon.

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Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Stephen Broussard, Richie Palmer, Marion Dayre, and Jason Gavin (Blackfeet) are executive producers of Echo. Amy Rardin, Sydney Freeland, Christina King (Seminole), and Jennifer Booth are co-executive producers.

What did you think about Echo? Do you agree with the series' general timeline? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.

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