Disney’s Most Anticipated Series Now Facing A Major Delay
The Marvel universe today is no stranger to spin-offs and expanded content. Every hero and villain is getting to step into the spotlight and have their story fleshed out with origin stories, expanded story arcs, and cross-overs of all kinds. However, the long-awaited Hawkeye spinoff series Echo is now being delayed alongside several other MCU projects until late 2023, according to The Writers Panel podcast.
Echo showrunner Marion Dayre made a recent appearance on The Writers Panel podcast to deliver the opposite of holiday cheer. The announcement of the delay of Echo by over six months came as a rather big surprise to the podcast’s host, Ben Blacker, as he asked Dayre directly when fans could expect Echo and a little bit about Marvel’s process.
Dayre has this to say –
It was kind of a crash course, you know, because I came in as a Co EP and then changed… that changed a little bit, and so I didn’t start there at the ground level, but really like shifting and changing a process to work with deadlines. Like, ‘Better Call Saul‘ very much uses a brick-by-brick process where we essentially break each episode three times. You do sort of a general overall break, and then we lay out some arcs, and then we go back in and brick by brick.
Echo explores Maya Lopez’s (played by Alaqua Cox) origin story long before the events of Hawkeye and her story with the Kingpin/Wilson Fisk and how she becomes the complicated hero that fans know and love.
Notably, several stars of Hulu’s hit series Reservation Dogs will be making appearances in Echo. Marvel is making great leaps in the proper representation of both Native American and disabled communities by having their title character played by an actually deaf and Native American actor. While it is not confirmed yet, the chances are high that Echo will see the appearance of superstar lawyer Matt Murdock, aka Daredevil.
With such a superstar cast and plot, it’s no surprise that when Echo was originally announced to be released on Disney+ for the summer of 2023 at Comic-Con 2022, it was met with high levels of praise and excitement across social media and hype across several entertainment news sources.
But building a show like Echo (or Better Call Saul) is a slow process and often times they will have to go back into the various story arcs and characters to ensure they are at the level they need to be before being considered ready for release. Some fans could consider this to be a partial reason for the delay but in true Marvel fashion, they are keeping a tight lip on the exact goings-on of their studio and post-production process.
Officially, Echo has wrapped shooting and is mostly in a solely editing stage of production. However, there is only speculation on why exactly this solo series has been delayed. While the wait might feel grueling to some of the fans out there, Marvel Studios has released an official trailer to help scratch the Echo itch.
In the meantime, Marvel Studios has confirmed it will be releasing a slew of movies and new TV seasons to help tie over fans until Echo’s release with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania releasing on February 17, 2023, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 releasing on May 5, 2023, and The Marvels releasing July 28, 2023.
