In a genre that comprises extraordinary superheroes and multiversal plot points, you never know what to expect from the Marvel Cinematic Universe — unless, of course, we’re talking about release dates. If there’s one thing we can count on, it’s that Marvel will shuffle its content calendar like a magician doing a cups-and-balls routine.
Just yesterday, CEO of Disney Bob Iger addressed his team during the company’s Q3 earnings call. In addition to walking back his inflammatory comments about the SAG-AFTRA strike, Iger displayed a presentation of upcoming theatrical and Disney Plus releases. To the surprise of many, Deadpool 3 and Echo were strangely left out. The former is scheduled to premiere on May 3, 2024, whereas the latter is only just a couple of months away, on Nov. 29.
Echo is an origin story about Maya Lopez, aka Echo (Alaqua Cox), a Native American deaf amputee superhero whom we met in Hawkeye. Unlike Loki, which will wrap up its second season mere weeks before Echo’s premiere, Echo is receiving none of the marketing glory Disney has bestowed upon Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief. In fact, it’s looking strikingly similar to Marvel’s next-to-nothing marketing campaign for Secret Invasion.
Echo has been on the receiving end of one piece of bad news after the next since May. Marvel revealed plans to drop the first season of Echo all at once instead of week by week, a first for any Marvel Disney Plus show and a precarious move at that; immediate reactions surmised it had either something to do with the quality of the show or Marvel’s personal feelings toward it.
However you spin it, the lack of marketing, conversation, or, to be quite frank, interest in Marvel’s most groundbreaking show to date is a bad look for Disney. Here you have the first leading role for a Deaf superhero in the MCU (after Lauren Ridloff’s supporting role Makkari in Eternals), an opportunity to shine a light on the Native American experience, and the ability to dispel stigmas related to living as an amputee, and yet Disney appears to have no interest in cultivating any of these important talking points.
Echo’s poor early reception is made worse by the fact that, as it stands, the show is scheduled to release just days after Loki season two concludes and The Marvels premieres in theaters. Marvel fans will have fewer than 19 days to collect themselves before being asked to turn their attention from an Asgarian prince navigating the Sacred Timeline, to an outer space feature film about three cosmic superheroes, to then a ground-level origin story about a Native American Deaf amputee reconnecting with her roots in Oklahoma.
It’s a lot to ask of a fandom, and an exercise in timing that Disney would have been wise to reconsider before slapping it on the calendar in permanent marker. Echo’s absence from Disney’s Q3 calendar could be a sign the Mouse House is trying to smudge away the ink marks and start anew next year. If that’s the case, that could become a win for Echo.
Then again, the last time Marvel shuffled its calendar and rearranged its lineup The Marvels went from being a prequel to Secret Invasion to a follow-up, and we all know how that turned out.
For the time being, Echo is scheduled to premiere on Disney Plus on Wednesday, November 29. If or when that changes, you will hear it from us straight away.