Echo Director Teases Family Ties for MCU Series

Echo has strong themes around family according to Director Sydney Freeland. She had an interview with Entertainment Weekly about the upcoming Disney+ series. The directotr consulted with members of the Choctaw Nation to come up with Echo's dynamics back home. Alaqua Cox's performance is informed by her upbringing and the people who made her into the woman we met in Hawkeye. That means her father just as much as Wilson Fisk's nefarious hand. The MCU loves to use family as a trope for these stories, so it will be interesting to see what that framing looks like for someone who's moral compass isn't quite so heroically inclined. Here's what she had to say about Echo.

"In Hawkeye, she had a very close relationship with her father, but we're going to expand on that and show the relationship she has with the rest of her family: her mother, her grandmother, her other relatives," Freeland says. "And also, within Native culture and Native societies, 'family' can have different meanings.

"You can have someone you're close to, and you're not biologically related, but that's my brother or that's my sister. I've probably got five moms," the director added. "I've got one biological mom, but I've got four others that are also 'my mom.' And so I think between that and the Kingpin relationship, it's all going to be about exploring the definition of family. What does it mean to be related to somebody?"

Echo Leans Into The Bloody Action As Well

For those viewers out there who think the MCU isn't mature enough, Echo, Deadpool 3, and the coming Daredevil: Born Again should scratch that itch. It feels like the tide is shifting back toward "grounded" stories, and that means more street level heroes. Director Sydney Freeland has been adamant that the TV-MA rating is absolutely there for a reason. In fact, during the same interview with Entertainment Weekly, she says that the production is full-scale leaning into the visceral action of it all.

"Because we're dealing with a story that is more street-level, it is a little more grounded and a little more visceral. We're leaning into the TV-MA aspect of it," Freeland began. "One of the big things when I first came on was talking to Marvel and saying, 'Well, she's a villain in Hawkeye, and to me that's the most interesting thing about her.' And their response was, 'Let's lean into that, let's explore that.'"

"As we progressed through the production, I had the chance to say, 'Okay so what if this guy gets his head smashed onto the table, and actually loses a couple of teeth?,'" Fshe continued. "That's the character and that's the world: She's a criminal and she's a villain, she's killing people. And the response was, 'Yeah, let's try it!'" 

Marvel Studios Spotlight Big Debut Series

Over the past few years, there has been some criticism that the MCU is too hard to follow. Well, Marvel Studios is bringing the Spotlight Series banner to the plate to help address those concerns. Shows like Echo will require very minimal engagement with the outside MCU. There will be some nods but they'e not at all necessary for ingesting the entire series. So, in that way Echo's pretty significant for what Marvel is doing going forward. Here' what the company had to say about the initiative during a recent fan-event.

"Marvel Spotlight gives us a platform to bring more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen, and in the case of Echo, focusing on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity," Marvel's Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum told the assembled press after the footage premiered. "Just like comics fans didn't need to read Avengers or Fantastic Four to enjoy a Ghost Rider Spotlight comic, our audience doesn't need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what's happening in Maya's story." 

How excited are you for Echo? Are you happier for more mature storytelling? Let us know down in the comments!