Echo, the upcoming Marvel Studios’ net sequence, will kickstart a brand new label within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Dubbed ‘Marvel Highlight,’ the brand new banner will permit audiences to leap right into a superhero’s arc with out worrying about continuity or having to compensate for different tasks within the franchise. It’s named after the anthology comedian e book sequence — originated in 1979 — serving as standalone origins tales for Spider-Girl and Ghost Rider as a gateway for brand new audiences. Whereas the character of Echo, performed by Alaqua Cox, was featured within the Jeremy Renner-led Hawkeye sequence, there’s completely no cause for newbies to concentrate on its occasions.
“Marvel Highlight offers us a platform to carry extra grounded, character-driven tales to the display screen, and within the case of Echo, specializing in street-level stakes over bigger MCU continuity,” Brad Winderbaum, Marvel’s Head of Streaming mentioned in a ready assertion. “Similar to comics followers did not must learn Avengers or Improbable 4 to take pleasure in a Ghost Rider Highlight comedian, our viewers would not must have seen different Marvel sequence to know what’s occurring in Maya’s story.” Whereas the idea of standalone reveals below a brand new banner is sensible, particularly contemplating the huge catalogue of MCU movies and reveals, I am somewhat sceptical given how closely the MCU is used to incorporating callbacks and easter eggs to different movies. I would not be shocked if the sequence finale ended with a post-credits scene that tied it into Hawkeye or some bigger occasion within the franchise.
An entire detachment from different tasks is just about not possible since Echo is poised to have run-ins with Charlie Cox’s Daredevil and her adoptive father Kingpin, performed by Vincent D’Onofrio. The brand new Disney+ Daredevil arc can be present process a whole reboot, so who is aware of the place that story is headed. Regardless, Marvel Studios has now not directly admitted that there is means an excessive amount of content material to comb via and that it is mainly crumbling below its personal weight for the reason that epic saga started with 2008’s Iron Man. Youngsters who grew up with these motion pictures are adults now, and it is form of foolish to count on a brand new era of viewers to maintain up with 15 years’ value of lore — particularly when the superhero film fatigue is at an all-time excessive. With new tasks piling on, it is higher to make a distinction between bigger MCU tales and the tales which can be disconnected from it — whereas nonetheless retaining the identical actors.
Attempt to not confuse this with DC Studios’ Elseworlds technique, which is about to introduce two Batmen — Matt Reeves’ The Batman: Half II and Andy Muschietti’s The Courageous and the Daring — whose distinctive arcs run parallel to one another. The tales informed in Marvel Highlight do ultimately tie into the bigger MCU mythos, however you needn’t do any homework to get into them. Final week, the studio dropped the primary trailer for Echo, which confirmed Wilson Fisk defending and elevating a deaf Native American Maya Lopez into an adept murderer. Canonically, set after the occasions of Hawkeye, the five-episode sequence will see her attempt to reconnect along with her Native roots whereas resolving some deep vendetta along with her adoptive father.
All 5 episodes of Echo drop January 10 on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar.
