Marvel Studios has just announced that Echo will premiere a day earlier than originally planned, on January 9. The series will also be getting a primetime release slot, hitting Disney+ and Hulu at 6PM PT/9PM ET. Echo sees Alaqua Cox reprise her breakout and trailblazing role Maya Lopez from the Hawkeye series. Maya returns home to face her past as it’s the only way for her to move forward and embrace the true meaning of family. Both Vincent D’Onofrio and Charlie Cox will be reprising their roles as Wilson Fisk (aka the Kingpin) and Matt Murdock (aka Daredevil) respectively.
Echo will be the first Marvel-produced series to receive a TV-MA rating from the TV Parental Guidelines, as the show will explore a more gritty and violent story than any other Disney-produced Marvel series. Echo director Sydney Freeland discusses this approach to the series by explaining, “Coming off Hawkeye, Maya is a villain, so tonally, we wanted to lean into that.” She acknowledges that previous Netflix-produced Marvel superhero shows such as Daredevil and The Punisher, have taken similar tones, expressing her “love” for that approach and how it helped to “[dictate] the tone.”
This tonal switch that Echo is opting for will become a bigger effort moving forward for the studio, as Marvel recently unveiled a new idea for Marvel Studios titled the Spotlight Banner, under which Echo will be the first title released. Titles released under this new banner will be part of MCU-Lite projects to highlight a different kind of Marvel story.
The Spotlight Banner will focus on character-driven stories that are more realistic and gritty in the larger context of the cosmic multiverse that is the MCU. Instead of every story being about saving the Earth, the universe, or even the multiverse, the stakes are much closer to home with personal stories of characters just trying to get by. This is something that Marvel Studios Head of Streaming, Brad Winterbaum believes will help bring a refreshing and more grounded approach to their stories that are “street level” rather than space battles.
The term “Spotlight” pays homage to the comic book series of the same name that debuted in 1971. The series allowed publishers the space to create new characters that didn’t have to meet the out-of-this-world standard most comic book characters adhered to. It was during this time that characters like Ghost Rider and Werewolf by Night were introduced and fleshed out. Marvel Studios is going back to its roots with the Spotlight Banner in an effort to combat superhero fatigue that has plagued the most recent MCU titles. And after the positive reviews for Echo‘s trailer, it’s clear that this is a good series to kick off that project.
via Collider