Posted in: Disney+, Hulu, Marvel, TV | Tagged: Alaqua Cox, Brad Winderbaum, Echo

Echo EP Winderbaum: The Future Of Marvel Is Telling Unexpected Stories

Echo EP Brad Winderbaum explains that the way forward for Marvel is to "tell stories that are unexpected" that are "character-focused."

Marvel Television had a weird 2023 with some ups and downs. The shows were just as inconsistent quality-wise as the movies were, and now we're heading into the new year with Echo. This show is different for a couple of reasons, the primary one being that it is the first show under the Marvel Spotlight umbrella. When Disney got all of the characters back from Netflix, no one was sure if we would ever see that kind of storytelling again, but we're being told that Spotlight is where that kind of storytelling will live. Now, we do have to remember that upping the violence or adding sex doesn't mean that the quality will go up or that it will suddenly become "more adult." that's a rather juvenile way of looking at it. Instead, this segment is being pitched as a new corner to explore. Executive producer Brad Winderbaum explained during the virtual press conference that this wasn't a case of setting a rating and writing a show around it. Instead, they went in writing a show based on the performance of Alaqua Cox and ended up at TV-MA naturally.

"Well, I think Marvel is at its best when the storytellers follow the character and let the character kind of lead the dance, lead the journey," Winderbaum said. "And we knew, as soon as we cast Alaqua in Hawkeye and saw what she did on screen in that show, that she would be an incredible character to follow into her journey. You know, Echo is a more adult show. It's our first TV-MA show, but we didn't set out to make a TV-MA show. We set out to make a Maya Lopez show. And this is a character who has a violent past, who's dealt with some real trauma, who has really difficult decisions to make, and ultimately has to confront people she loves in order to grow and change. And in following this character it created the tone. It created a grittier, more grounded story for the audience. That just so happened to be more adult. More TV-MA. But it really was always born from Maya as a character."

Marvel is heading into a year where they have the opportunity to course correct and maybe refocus on some things. What initially made people fall in love with these movies and shows were the characters. No one was coming back again and again because of the stupid Infinity Stones; they were coming back because of Tony Stark and Steve Rogers. The latter films and shows seem to have lost that focus, but Winderbaum says that character-focused shows like Echo are the way forward for the universe.

"Marvel is such a big, vast universe," Winderbaum explained. "The comics have been called the greatest ongoing story that's ever been written. Certainly, the longest, and there are so many corners of the universe that are still unexplored—even today. Maya allowed us to see a corner of the MCU that hadn't been seen before, and to me, that is the future of Marvel. It is being able to tell stories that are unexpected, that operate on the fringe of what we've seen before, and are standalone. Character-focused and have a unique personality all their own."

It will be a weird superhero year, kids, but maybe with a little bit of a break, we can stop reading the same "superhero fatigue" op-ed every three to five business days. The Marvel Spotlight corner for Marvel and how Echo is received could be very telling for the future of that corner of the universe.

Echo Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Marvel Studios presents Echo, spotlighting Maya Lopez as she is pursued by Wilson Fisk's criminal empire. When the journey brings her home, she must confront her own family and legacy. Echo stars Alaqua Cox (Hawkeye) as Maya Lopez, as well as Chaske Spencer (Wild Indian, The English), Tantoo Cardinal (Killers of the Flower Moon, Stumptown), Devery Jacobs (FX's Reservation Dogs, American Gods), Zahn McClarnon (Dark Winds, FX's Reservation Dogs) and Cody Lightning (Hey, Viktor!, Four Sheets to the Wind), with Graham Greene (1883, Goliath) and Vincent D'Onofrio (Hawkeye, Daredevil, Law & Order: Criminal Intent), who returns to the villainous role of Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin.

Episodes of the series are directed by Sydney Freeland (Navajo) and Catriona McKenzie (Gunaikurnai). Executive producers are Kevin Feige, Stephen Broussard, Louis D'Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Victoria Alonso, Richie Palmer, Jason Gavin (Blackfeet), Marion Dayre and Sydney Freeland. Co-executive producers are Jennifer L. Booth and Amy Rardin. Marvel Studios' Echo launches on Disney+ and Hulu on January 9, 2024.

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