Marvel is about to drop Sydney Freeland-directed and Alaqua Cox-starring television miniseries Echo on 9 January 2024. Previously, the director disclosed her initiative to change the MCU from a once-dominant superhero franchise to a more street-level action-packed franchise, by introducing a cutthroat villain as the protagonist of her show.
Standing by her decision, Sydney Freeland once again assured fans that the protagonist Maya Lopez aka Echo (Alaqua Cox) is still a villain and that the show will “lean in” to that. Unwilling to turn the main character into a stereotypical superhero like Captain America, Freeland refrained from “boring” stuff.
Sydney Freeland Called Echo a Violent Superhero Series
Speaking with EW in December 2023, about her upcoming Marvel show Echo, executive producer and director Sydney Freeland noted how she’s willing to do things differently. Stating how the MCU has been struggling as a superhero franchise, Freeland assured that her upcoming show will change the landscape for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Claiming that Echo, featuring Alaqua Cox as the protagonist Maya Lopez, won’t be a simple story about happy reunions, Sydney Freeland stated that it will be more street-level and gritty.
“One of the big things when I first came on was talking to Marvel and saying, ‘Well, she’s a villain in Hawkeye, and to me that’s the most interesting thing about her.’ And their response was, ‘Let’s lean into that, let’s explore that.’”
Also read: Echo Trailer Convinces Fans it’s as Good as Daredevil
Discussing how Marvel Studios agreed with her idea to turn the protagonist of the show into a cutthroat villain, Sydney Freeland called Alaqua Cox‘s Maya Lopez aka Echo “a criminal and she’s a villain, she’s killing people”. But since it’s the first time that the MCU will base an entire show on a character that’s criminal-like, fans are excited and curious to know more.
Alaqua Cox’s Echo Won’t Be Like Marvel’s Captain America
With Alaqua Cox’s Echo approaching its release date on 9 January 2024, fans are getting curious to learn if Marvel is still planning to stick with the same villainous storyline, or if they toned it down. Thus, addressing fans’ concerns, Sydney Freeland assured that Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez still remains a villain.
Speaking exclusively with RadioTimes, the executive producer and director of Echo, Sydney Freeland noted that the show will “lean in” to the villain-like storyline. “This will be Marvel’s first TV-MA series… We always knew that we wanted to tell a story that was a little more grounded, it was a little more street level, it was a little grittier.” Freeland shared.
“In conversations with Marvel, as we were talking about the character, the response was, like, ‘Let’s lean into that, let’s see how far we can go down that rabbit hole. Really, as we come into the series, Maya Lopez is a villain. But the goal is not to turn her into Captain America. No, no, no. That, to me, is actually kind of boring.”
Stating that Maya Lopez still remains a villain, Sydney Freeland discussed that she won’t turn the protagonist into an archetypal Marvel hero like Captain America. Willing to explore the “nuances and those dynamics” of Maya, and find out how a deaf indigenous girl becomes a top lieutenant in Kingpin’s army, Freeland disclosed that the show won’t feature clean-cut dichotomies of good versus evil like that of Captain America.
Rather than narrating a story of good work and heroic deeds as shown in Captain America, Echo will challenge the conventional superhero narrative and embrace a darker, more grittier tone. In simple terms, it won’t be a stereotypical superhero series.
