Trivia / Echo (2024)

• Actor-Inspired Element: Because Alaqua Cox is an amputee, the stunt team incorporated her prosthetic into the show's fight choreography, with Maya able to shrug off blows to her prosthetic and using the metal and carbon fibre material to hurt opponents.
• Author's Saving Throw:
  • Shortly after the trailer for this series released, Marvel announced the creation of a new categorization of branding called "Spotlight" which is meant to help separate the less important installments of the MCU from the major ones, as a way of helping fans suffering from Continuity Lockout. For this show in particular, Marvel's Head of Streaming, Brad Winderbaum, confirmed that Maya's story is a standalone street-level series, and doesn't require viewing any prior MCU works to watch beforehand.
  • This series finally, finally, confirms that Daredevil (2015) (and by proxy, the rest of the Netflix era of shows) are canonical to the wider MCU and are now part of the "Sacred timeline", at least in Brad Winderbaums' eyes. What helps is that unlike Hawkeye (2021), Spiderman: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, there's more than just small worldbuilding references or attempting to apply Schrödinger's Canon; one of the biggest plot points is quite explicit. In this series, Fisk tells Maya (and later, reliving a memory set when he was young) of killing his abusive father with a hammer to protect his mother, something that very specifically happened in Daredevil and they only stop short of using archive footage from the series (though they do use footage in Echo's official trailer). This news has been a long time coming, as those series are well-loved by fans, and officially integrating them into the setting makes a lot of sense, given how those series almost never referenced the films (or vice-versa), so there's almost no continuity issues to speak of.
• California Doubling: The series is set primarily in Tamaha, Oklahoma but was shot mostly around Atlanta, Georgia.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor:
  • Actress Alaqua Cox is a deaf woman like her character Maya. Cox's other disability was also written into the series, as Cox has a prosthetic leg.
  • It turns out that Maya's mother Taloa was deaf too. She's played by deaf actress Katarina Ziervogel.
• Fake American: Tantoo Cardinal (Chula), Devery Jacobs (Bonnie), Cody Lightning (Biscuits), and Graham Greene (Skully) are Canadians playing Americans.
• Fake Nationality: Not about US citizenship (bar some Canadians), rather about Native American nations. Maya and her family are Choctaw but none of the actors are of Choctaw descent.^note Alaqua Cox is Menominee and Mohican; Chaske Spencer is Lakota, Nez Perce, and Muscogee; Tantoo Cardinal is Cree and Métis from Canada; Devery Jacobs is Mohawk; Zahn McClarnon is Lakota; Cody Lightning is Cree; and Graham Greene is Oneida.
• Not Screened for Critics: A variant. Marvel imposed a notable spoiler embargo for Echo. Normally, critics will be allowed to publish their reviews, up to several days before a Marvel production premieres. However, in the case for Echo, Marvel forebode critics to publish their reviews, until after the show had premiered.
• Real-Life Relative: Alaqua Cox's cousin, Darnell Besaw, returns to play young Maya in the show's flashbacks.
• Real Song Theme Tune: The opening credits are set to "Burning" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
• Schedule Slip: The series experienced several date changes. When the Phase Five slate was unveiled in July 2022, the show was scheduled to premiere in "summer 2023". However, by the end of 2022, it was reported that the project would be delayed to "late 2023". The project's new release date was eventually announced for November 29th, 2023, but by September 2023, the project was delayed a second time (likely from the industry-wide strikes) with the premiere date moving to its final iteration of January 9th, 2024.
• Stunt Double: For practical reasons, Echo's more acrobatic stunts and fight choreography was handled by Alaqua Cox's stunt double.^note Principal photography was rushed and chaotic and no one wanted to risk Cox getting injured and causing delays. Plus, Cox's prosthetic doesn't provide the natural range of motion needed to achieve the movements required in some sequences.
• Time-Shifted Actor:
  • They bring back Darnell Besaw as young Maya in new flashback scenes.
  • Isabella Madrigal (not that one) plays young Chula in Maya's ancestral flashbacks.
• Troubled Production: The production hit several snags along the way; original series writers Etan and Emily Cohen were swapped out for writer Marion Dayre, who would later reveal that Marvel had originally rushed the show into production, with Dayre saying there was "not enough time" for the writing. In May 2023, the show was reported to have been initially deemed "unreleasable", which allegedly led to reshoots of most of the series and the episode count decreasing to only five installments.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Echo was supposed to have as many as eight episodes; however, the final episode count was ultimately reduced to five.
  • The series was originally intended to be written by husband-and-wife duo Etan and Emily Cohen, but they were later replaced by Marion Dayre.
• You Look Familiar:
  • Chaske Spencer, who played Jace Montero in the third season of Jessica Jones, portrays Henry Lopez in this series.
  • Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, who previously voiced Original Generation character Kahhori in What If...?, portrays Bonnie in this series. Jacobs is very much aware of the coincidence and has noted that her two characters aren't related.
  • Thomas E. Sullivan, who previously played Nathaniel Malick in the seventh season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., plays Vickie Tyson.
  • Andrew Howard, who previously played Luther Banks in the third season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., plays Zane.

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