Marvel Is Changing The Release For Echo On Disney+ In A Huge Way
All six episodes of Echo will be released at the same time on November 29.
After meeting Maya Lopez in Hawkeye, fans wanted to see more of the Tracksuit Mafia leader and skilled deaf warrior. We’ve known for a while that fans would get their wish as Maya Lopez has her own spin-off in the works, but now Kevin Feige has announced some pretty unexpected news for the upcoming Marvel show. According to Deadline, the MCU is changing the way they are releasing series, starting with Maya Lopez’s Echo, and will be releasing all episodes of the series at once on Disney+, making it binge-able for fans who don’t want to wait for weekly episode releases.
The announcement that all Echo episodes will drop at once on the series’ release date on November 29 is huge news as Marvel has never done anything like this before. Previously, all Marvel Cinematic Universe series have had episodes released in the traditional television format of airing one episode per week.
In the era of streaming, when most series on other platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon release all at once, viewers have developed a binge mindset where it’s become a habit to immediately start watching the next episode, especially when an episode ends with a cliffhanger. Viewers have become accustomed to the instant gratification that comes with being able to resolve an entire story in one afternoon of binging instead of waiting for weeks or even months to complete an arc. In the case of Echo, the Marvel show will be a limited series with only six total episodes, so releasing it all at once means that committed fans could finish the entire show in just a day.
The Hawkeye spin-off centers around Maya Lopez, a deaf Native American woman who has the incredible superpower of being able to imitate any opponent’s fighting style and uses the superhero pseudonym Echo. The character is portrayed by Alaqua Cox, a deaf Native American actress who is smashing through two glass ceilings at the same time. Cox is the second deaf actor to be distinctively featured in the MCU (Lauren Ridloff who plays Makkari in Eternals was the first) and the first Native American actress to play a major role in the franchise.
While the Echo protagonist has only been featured in Hawkeye so far, in the comics, she also finds herself tangled up in adventures with other Marvel regulars like Daredevil, Moon Knight, and the Avengers. In addition to getting her own series to be released this fall, it is likely that Marvel will continue using her character and that she will have appearances in other MCU series, or even in the blockbuster films.
In addition to Cox, Echo will also bring back a few familiar faces that we’ve seen from other Marvel products in the past. Charlie Cox, who plays Matt Murdock’s Daredevil will make an appearance in the series, as will Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk, aka King Pin. Zahn McClarnon, Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, Cody Lightning, and Graham Greene are also set to star in the series.
