The director of Marvel’s newest collection, Echo, has opened up concerning the MCU villain. Starring Alaqua Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, K. Devery Jacobs and extra, the collection delves into Maya Lopez’s Choctaw Nation roots as he returns to Oklahoma.
At a press convention, attended by Filmfare, director Sydney Freeland shared insights about spotlighting the character who’s a deaf-mute, Native American. She mentioned, “Everything stems from the story. What is the character? Where are they coming from? Where are they going? What is the emotion? We have Maya Lopez who is introduced as a villain in Hawkeye. That was really our jumping-off point with Wilson Fisk and the New York criminal underworld.”
Echo is not going to attempt to paint Maya Lopez as an out-and-out hero, revealed the director. “It’s actually very interesting that she’s a villain. So the goal was never to try to turn her into Captain America. In the conversations with Marvel, the response was, ‘Hey, let’s lean into that. Let’s see if we can push it out a little. Let’s see how far we can go down that rabbit hole.’ The tone and the visual style came from the story and the circumstances of the character,” she mentioned.
She added, “We checked out, ‘Oh, this is a deaf, indigenous amputee girl from Oklahoma. How the hell does she end up being one of the top-ranking lieutenants in Kingpin’s army?’ And answering these questions was such an thrilling place to be.”
Echo will launch on January 10, 2024.