Echo premiered on Disney+ earlier this month, as Marvel writers introduced fans to Maya Lopez’s origin story and explored her connection to the world of Daredevil. The titular character, who chased Clint Barton and Kate Bishop in Hawkeye in 2021, slows down in the series to reconnect with her Native American roots.
The Alaqua Cox-led show attracted encouraging reviews from critics, but Echo failed to make too much noise on the streaming platform, with the exhausted MCU fans showing little interest in Hawkeye’s spin-off. Having said that, Marvel Studios is unlikely to feel much pain due to the show’s modest budget compared to high-profile flops like Secret Invasion.
Secret Invasion Overshadowed by Echo in the Ratings Race
Alaqua Cox‘s Maya Lopez confronts her own family when she’s pursued by Wilson Fisk’s criminal empire in Season 1 of Echo, which also marks the beginning of the Marvel Spotlight banner.
Echo might not go on to ape the success of the likes of Loki, WandaVision, and of course Hawkeye, but the story arcs of Maya and Kingpin have given Daredevil fans plenty to unravel ahead of the much-awaited series Daredevil: Born Again. More importantly, Cox’s show has performed reasonably well critically, managing a rating of 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. And Marvel managed to do all this with a budget of just $40 million.
In comparison, they spent $212 million to bring Emilia Clarke and Samuel L. Jackson together for Secret Invasion. Despite a budget of more than five times that of the latest MCU series, Secret Invasion boasts a disappointing rating of 53 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
At the time of its premiere, a report in Forbes stated that the six-part show debuted on Disney+ to the second-lowest audience of any Marvel Comics streaming series.
Secret Invasion Almost Became a Nightmare Stint for Emilia Clarke
The story following Nick Fury’s attempts to thwart an imminent Skrull invasion and save humanity didn’t work as expected. Clarke’s comments suggest things didn’t pan out so well during the making of the series as well.
During an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, the Game of Thrones star revealed that one day on set, she nearly ran Jackson over with a car.
For one scene, the British actress was given an old Russian car, which she didn’t know how to drive. Instead of requesting to change the car and risk delaying the filming, Clarke gave herself a pep talk, saying, “OK, I can do this. It’s just one stop.”
She continued: “[I] get in there. We get up to it. The camera is right there. Sam is right there. And I pressed the wrong thing, I pressed the accelerator rather than the brake.”
Fortunately, she was able to find the brake pedal before colliding with the Pulp Fiction star, who kept his cool during and after the incident.
