Echo Producer Explains Marvel Studios' First TV-MA Rating

"Viewer discretion advised." That's the warning that opens the latest TV spot for Marvel Studios' Echo, which begins with the bloodied fist of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio), the Kingpin. Rated TV-MA for language and violence, Echo is the first Marvel Studios series to receive the TV-MA rating reserved for content considered unsuitable for children under 17. (Marvel Television, not Marvel Studios, produced the mature-rated series Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, and The Defenders for Netflix.) Though Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) debuted on the TV-14 Marvel Studios series Hawkeye on Disney+, it's her violent past — and her descent into Fisk's criminal empire — that motivated Marvel to push Echo to TV-MA.   

"We didn't set out to make a TV-MA show. We set out to make a Maya Lopez show," Marvel Studios executive Brad Winderbaum told ComicBook's Phase Zero podcast. "She's a character with a violent past who lives in an ethically gray area. And like Sydney Freeland, our [executive producer] and director said, it's an unapologetic show."

The Echo executive producer added: "We just let Maya lead the journey, and that turned into a TV-MA experience."

When unveiling the brooding and bloody first footage in November, Winderbaum told press that Echo is "a little on the grittier side for Marvel, and shows what the breadth of what Marvel is capable of," as well as "a new direction for the brand, especially for Disney+."

Echo shares more DNA with the Marvel TV series that comprised the Defenders-verse — particularly Daredevil — moreso than previous Marvel Studios streaming series like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and Hawkeye.

"People on our show, they bleed, they die. They get killed and there are real-world consequences," Freeland added, describing Maya as a "villain" and Echo as a "street-level" affair with familial — not world-ending — stakes.

"Maya is in a very vulnerable, emotional place after this. She's got all this bottled-up emotion and rage and feeling inside of her, and she doesn't know what to do with it. And there's going to be somebody there to give her a little nudge," Freeland said. "[Echo is] an exploration of trauma — how we deal with it, how we cope with it, how it affects us, how we affect it, how it affects those around us."

Marvel Studios' Echo spotlights Maya Lopez as she is pursued by Wilson Fisk's criminal empire. When the journey brings her home, she must confront her own family andlegacy. Echo — starring Alaqua Cox (Hawkeye), Chaske Spencer (Wild Indian), Graham Greene (1883), Tantoo Cardinal (Killers of the Flower Moon), Devery Jacobs (FX's Reservation Dogs), Zahn McClarnon (Dark Winds), Cody Lightning (Hey, Viktor!), and Vincent D'Onofrio (Daredevil) — premieres January 9 on Disney+ and Hulu.