Following a flurry of movie office disappointments and the sacking of Jonathan Majors after he was found guilty of abusing and harassing his ex-girlfriend, Marvel is rediscovering its footing in the new year. Echo, a Hawkeye spin-off, is the entertainment behemoth’s first release of 2024. The series, centered on the titular Echo (Alaqua Cox), will premiere on Disney+ and Hulu on January 9.
Echo, or Maya Lopez, was introduced to the MCU as the commander of the Tracksuit Mafia, a group previously headed by her father, in the 2021 Disney+ drama Hawkeye. She is the second deaf superhero to appear in the MCU, after Makkari’s entrance in Eternals (2021). Maya is Native American, and Echo follows her as she tries to come to terms with her father’s loss and accept her indigenous heritage and family. The show delves into Maya’s culture and ancestry in an investigation of her origin story over the course of five episodes.
“Culturally, there’s such a specificity that we hadn’t explored with the character,” adds supervising producer Eleena Khamedoost in the press notes. The Echo crew collaborated with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma to ensure that the event felt true to the community. “It was critical for us to take Maya out of New York City and show a side of the MCU that we had never seen before.” Tamaha, Oklahoma, was chosen as the backdrop for the drama because the small, intimate rural town feels like a character in the play.” Before you see Echo, here’s everything you need to know.
Echo appears in Marvel’s Hawkeye
Maya Lopez is the boss of the Tracksuit Mafia in Hawkeye, a group formerly commanded by her father, who was assassinated by the Ronin, Clint Barton’s (Jeremy Renner) secret persona established in Avengers: Endgame. Maya and her group capture Clint and his new sidekick, Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), in order to question them about the Ronin and learn more about her father’s death. They flee, and she attempts to track them down in order to seek answers.
In Hawkeye’s last episode, Maya and the Ronin battle inside the auto shop where her father was murdered, and as he is about to defeat her, Clint removes his mask to reveal that he is her father’s killer. He informs Maya that her boss, Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), wants her father dead, which convinces her to leave him and his family alone. Maya and Fisk are in an alley toward the conclusion of the last episode when she shoots him and leaves him for dead. This is the last we see of Maya before Echo.
What the comics tell us about Echo’s role in the MCU
While Maya lacks supernatural ability, her abilities are more practical. She learnt to read lips at an early age and is a good combatant. Maya has studied martial arts, sword and staff fighting, and is a skilled marksman with acrobatic training. In the comics, Jessica and Daredevil battled because Fisk convinced her that he was her father’s murderer, but he eventually explained himself and convinced her to shoot Kingpin. Maya also becomes an ally of the New Avengers team in the comics, something we may see in the MCU when the Young Avengers begin to form.
How Echo sets up the future of the MCU
Echo teases more Hawkeye and Kate Bishop in the future, and introduces Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin, as a possible Marvel villain to watch. The Multiverse Saga has gone through several changes in the last several months, and the future of Marvel’s next Thanos-level villain is in doubt after the company ousted Jonathan Majors, who was set to take on the role with his Kang the Conqueror character.
Marvel tells moment that they have no intentions to pursue Majors at this moment, and it’s unclear if the part will be recast or eliminated completely.
