Daredevil And Kingpin Are Coming To Disney+’s Echo
They may be looking for Jessica Jones.
Like Daredevil before it, Hawkeye was about street-level superheroes, people who don’t have superpowers, just a lot of training. Clint Barton and Kate Bishop are technically vigilantes, individuals bringing down organized crime and punishing the rich for using their wealth for ill-gotten gains. But there’s one other way Hawkeye is like its Netflix predecessor: It introduced an anti-hero who will headline their own spinoff. Disney+’s Echo is set to follow Hawkeye’s limited series in the coming year.
Despite being one of the original six Avengers, Clint Barton is like Wanda Maximoff and Loki. He’s been around in multiple films but never had his story adequately centered. The new Hawkeye series rights that wrong, giving fans more of Barton’s kids and family life. But it also brought in a part of the character that Avengers: Endgame glossed over, Ronin.
Including Ronin as a central plot point gave the series an excuse to bring in another character who also carried the Ronin mantle in the comics: Echo, whose real name is Maya Lopez. Echo is one of the very few deaf characters in the Marvel pantheon. She’s also not exactly a hero. She was initially introduced as a primary antagonist in the comics. Therefore, her Disney+ spinoff, Echo, is expected to be to Hawkeye like The Punisher was to Daredevil. Here’s what fans should know about it.
Echo Cast
Obviously, Hawkeye’s Alaqua Cox will star as Echo, aka Maya Lopez. The events of Hawkeye point to at least a few more characters from the show turning up as well. Though she takes out her right-hand man, Kazi (Fra Fee), in the finale, multiple characters from the Tracksuits will probably return in comic relief roles, such as Carlos Navarro as Enrique. Also, there’s a possibility that Eleanor Bishop (Vera Farmiga) or Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), or even Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) could show up. Eleanor was in deep with the Tracksuits and is now in jail, and Jack was her patsy, so the family’s connections to Maya remain.
On July 7, 2022, The Hollywood Reporter reported Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio will appear in Echo, reprising their roles as Daredevil and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin, respectively, from the Netflix Daredevil series, which moved to Disney+ in March 2022. Hawkeye already reintroduced D’Onofrio, as the New York City crime lord and the ultimate head of the Tracksuit Mafia, who Echo refers to as “uncle.” Charlie Cox’s also appeared in a brief cameo as Matt Murdock in Spider-Man: No Way Home that same month. However, despite fans eagerly pointing out Echo’s primary role as an antagonist to Daredevil, the final scene of Hawkeye suggested Maya shot Kingpin in the face as retaliation for her father’s murder, putting his return in doubt. (To be clear, fans are not inclined to believe this since it did not happen on screen.)
How Daredevil and Kingpin will fit into the Echo series remains to be seen, but rumor has it they’re searching for Jessica Jones, whose titular Netflix series also moved to Disney+. Marvel has not commented on any of this.
Echo Filming Updates
The rumors about Echo have been swirling since March 2021, when Deadline initially reported a series focused on the character in development at Disney+. Marvel confirmed the new series was a go days before the Hawkeye premiere and introduced actor Alaqua Cox’s live-action version of the character to fans at the tail end of Episode 2.
With Hawkeye planned as a single limited series, much like WandaVision, there’s no Season 2 to keep characters around. The only way to continue someone like Echo is to move them to the big screen (as is planned for Lashana Lynch’s Monica Rambeau/Photon) or their own series (like Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness). Echo makes a lot of sense as a character to headline a spinoff, as she has multiple adventures with two other new characters on Disney+: She-Hulk and Moon Knight.
Echo Teaser
As filming for Echo has not yet commenced, there is no official trailer. But Marvel released the new series's first logo as part of the confirmation announcement.
Echo Release Date
Disney+ has not set dates for any Marvel series releases for 2022 yet. Hopefully, a barrage of dates will be forthcoming.
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