Echo's Director Discusses Making a Mature Disney+ Series Where Bones Break and People Die

Editor's Note: The following interview contains minor spoilers for 'Echo.'

Marvel Studios' Echo marks the first of many milestones for the company. Not only is the show the first under the brand-new Marvel Spotlight banner (more on that later), it also stars Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, the MCU's first deaf and Native American lead, as well as the first series to launch simultaneously on Disney+ and Hulu with a TV-MA rating.

First introduced in the Disney+ series Hawkeye, starring Hailee Steinfeld and Jeremy Renner, Lopez is the adoptive daughter and under the tutelage of New York crime lord, Wilson Fisk, i.e. Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio). Having been undeniably villain-coded at the end of Hawkeye, Echo explores the teenager's journey from "a top-ranking lieutenant in Kingpin's army" to returning home to Oklahoma and her Choctaw family, and processing the trauma since her father's death. If you're looking for a violent, gritty, and brief respite from the Multiverse, Echo is it. The show also stars Charlie Cox, Zahn McClarnon, Devery Jacobs, and more.

During a conversation with Collider's Steve Weintraub, director Sydney Freeland addresses Disney+'s first TV-MA rating, why it's necessary for Maya's narrative, and how they fully utilized both the rating and the Spotlight banner to tell a grounded, street-level arc for this new antihero. Check out the full interview in the video above, or the transcript below, to find out why Echo changed in a massive way from beginning to end in the edit bay, the challenges of filming ASL scenes, and more.

#Echo #SydneyFreeland #Marvel

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