It’s been a tough year for Marvel with lower box offices and more criticism aimed at their Disney+ programs. But what’s at the root of this all of a sudden? One of the many complaints is that there is simply too much content out there, and it feels like fans need to watch everything just to keep up with MCU continuity. Disney is taking steps to change that by shelving some projects and delaying others, but with the release of Echo next year we’re seeing another major change: the introduction of Marvel Spotlight.
The trailer for Echo, a spinoff of the Hawkeye series centered on deaf Native American assassin Maya Lopez, is only days old. And recently there was a special screening for the Choctaw Nation’s annual Powwow. Marvel.com chronicled the event, and in the article it mentions that Echo is the first that’s part of the Marvel Spotlight line, a sub-brand designed to tell smaller, character-focused stories with no overt connections to the larger MCU.
So it doesn’t quite sound like they’re pulling an “Elseworlds” in the same way DC is doing with The Batman and Joker, in which they are completely isolated, standalone stories. It sounds as if Echo will be set in the MCU but the story will be free from having to acknowledge, say, stuff going on with the Avengers. It’s similar to what Marvel did during the Netflix years, where shows such as Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and The Defenders existed within the MCU but never had any storyline connection to it.
“Marvel Spotlight gives us a platform to bring more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen, and in the case of ‘Echo,’ focusing on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity,” explained Marvel Studios’ Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum. “Just like comics fans didn’t need to read ‘Avengers’ or ‘Fantastic Four’ to enjoy a ‘Ghost Rider’ Spotlight comic, our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story.”
This makes sense from a marketing standpoint. On a creative level, they could’ve done this and not made a big deal out of it. But Marvel needs those fans turned off by the excessive MCU continuity to know there are shows out there where they don’t have to think about it.
That said, I also think this will turn off people who are 100% invested in the MCU, because they’ll feel like Echo is a show they can ignore. We’ll have to see which way the wind blows on this one.
Echo debuts on January 10th 2024 with all five episodes available on Disney+ and Hulu.
