This January, Marvel Studios is releasing a brand new series called “Echo”, which spotlights Maya Lopez as she is pursued by Wilson Fisk’s criminal empire. When the journey brings her home, she must confront her own family and legacy.

The series stars Alaqua Cox in the title role and she previously debuted in the Disney+ series, “Hawkeye” and will be joined by Chaske Spencer (“Wild Indian,” “The English”), Graham Greene (“1883,” “Goliath”), Tantoo Cardinal (“Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Stumptown”), Devery Jacobs (FX’s “Reservation Dogs,” “American Gods”), Zahn McClarnon (“Dark Winds,” FX’s “Reservation Dogs”), Cody Lightning (“Hey, Viktor!” “Four Sheets to the Wind”) and Vincent D’Onofrio (“Hawkeye,” “Godfather of Harlem”).

Recently, the director of the new Disney+ series, Sydney Freeland, came to London to promote the upcoming show and I was lucky enough to speak to her about “Echo”.

What was your biggest highlight working on “Echo”? 

The biggest highlight, I think it was working with Alaqua Cox. I cannot say enough about that woman. She’s a new actor, she’s a first time actor, and her entire filmmaking experience prior to this show was a few days on Hawkeye. To go from that to being the lead of a Marvel series that shot for over 90 days, I can’t imagine what that must’ve been like for her. But she’s exceeded everybody’s wildest expectations. She’s beautiful, she’s charismatic, she’s badass, she’s emotional, and it was such a joy to have the chance to work with her and bring the Echo character to life.

“Echo” is breaking a lot of new ground for Marvel in many different ways. It’s going to be on Disney+ and Hulu. It’s also going to be the first mature show and the first show to be released under the Spotlight banner, and they’re all going to be released at once. How did it make you feel having such a different release schedule?

Oh, that’s an interesting question. I think for us it was business as usual, behind the scenes. We always knew the story would be, we always knew the character we wanted to portray, and I think the nuance came in the tone. The most interesting thing to me about the character is that she’s a villain in Hawkeye, and we wanted to lean into that, we wanted to explore that. I think for myself, one of the questions I ask is, how does a deaf indigenous girl end up being a top lieutenant in Kingpin’s army? Even for someone who’s indigenous, that’s a pretty big leap to make. But in exploring that and bringing that to life, there was actually a lot of fun. So, once we knew what our landscape was, it was just all about leaning in and telling that story.

I think the other thing is, because the character is a villain and because we’re not dealing with the fate of the universe, and we’re not dealing with these big, huge cosmic consequences, we don’t have characters that are immortal that have been here since the beginning of time, it allows us to tell a little bit more of a more deeply human intimate story. But that also means the stakes can potentially be bigger, because the people in our show, they die, they bleed, they get killed, bones get broken in our show. That was one of the most exciting things about it. Yeah. It was incredibly exciting to be able to portray all that.

How important was getting the representation right with “Echo”?

I think representation, it’s interesting because people talk about, “We need diversity, we need representation,” but for me, that’s just my normal life. It’s not something I think about, it’s not something that I actively pursue. It’s just something I do, because I am diverse. I represent multiple marginalized, diverse communities. So, for me, it was a no-brainer that when we had a character who was indigenous, we had to involve indigenous creatives, both in front of and behind the camera. Even though I’m indigenous, I’m not deaf. So, that meant we had to have deaf individuals both in front of and behind the camera. We had deaf and indigenous writers, we had deaf and indigenous consultants, we had deaf and indigenous actors in front of the camera. So, for myself, what I go about is what I would describe as my normal waking life and everyday going about the world. It was incredibly exciting to just bring that into a TV series.

Did you go back and watch the Netflix shows like “Daredevil” to give you a guide about how to film scenes featuring characters like Daredevil and Kingpin?

Oh, well, I had seen them. I’m a fan of the Netflix Daredevil series. Did I go back and watch them for this? Actually, the season three, when we were developing the Kingpin character, we always talked about in the writer’s room, this idea that Kingpin’s superpower is, and also the comic books, his superpower isn’t his strength, it’s his intellect. It’s his ability to manipulate people to psychologically get into people’s heads. I think season three of the Netflix Daredevil does a great job of that. Actually, even there’s a Kingpin miniseries in the comics that also does a similar thing. So, those are things that I looked at just to try to get into Kingpin’s psyche a little bit. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have Vincent D’Onofrio there, who knows this character on a deeply visceral level as well too.

All five episodes of Marvel’s “Echo” are coming to Disney+ and Hulu on Tuesday 9th January 2024 at 6 pm PT / 9 pm ET.

Are you looking forward to watching “Echo”?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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