Maya Lopez might be the one with her superhero name in the show’s title, but much of the hype in the run-up to Echo centered on its many tie-ins to the Defenders Saga — the grittier street-level side of the MCU that used to live on Netflix.
The series, starring Alaqua Cox as the superpowered non-mutant anti-heroine, brings back Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin in a big way and even Charlie Cox (no relation) pops up as Daredevil once more. In fact, Disney Plus even celebrated the release of Echo by adding the entire Defenders Saga to its official MCU timeline order, thereby confirming that it’s all canon at long last.
All this hype surrounding its Defenders-verse crossovers only led to increased chatter and speculation that more of Matt Murdock’s pals could appear in Echo. Most commonly, the idea of Krysten Ritter popping up as Jessica Jones in some form was floated around prior to Echo‘s premiere. So is there any truth to these rumors? Let’s do our best impression of the sarcastic sleuth and investigate the answer…
Is Daredevil the only Defender to cameo in Echo?
Despite being the first show to sport the new Marvel Spotlight banner for standalone projects, Echo proudly bears its MCU tie-ins from the off, with a lengthy flashback sequence that splices archival footage from Hawkeye with new material featuring Wilson Fisk. What’s more, it also contains the much-anticipated fight sequence between Maya and the Man Without Fear, meaning fans don’t have to wait long to see Cox back in action. This scene is a big deal as it marks the first time he’s worn the classic red suit since 2018’s Daredevil season 3.
But, no, there is no Jessica Jones in Echo. Nor is there any peep from Luke Cage, Iron Fist, or the Punisher either. While fans would love to have seen some more Defenders rock up on Maya’s doorstep, with just five episodes, it likely wasn’t feasible to crowbar any more cameos into the mix. Especially as the showrunners were paramount about Maya’s character arc being at the forefront of the series.
“It’s Maya’s story,” EP Sydney Freeland proclaimed to Deadline, when asked about how Daredevil’s cameo came about. “We talked about early on, is Daredevil even gonna be in the series? It wasn’t a formality. The conversation was always, always, always how can we use these characters in service of Maya.”
Given Maya’s connection to Kingpin, and long-term history with Matt Murdock in the comics, it was an organic move for the story to include Daredevil, whereas it would’ve been a bit of a stretch for Jessica Jones to wander into the narrative — although, who knows, maybe she could’ve been investigating the Fisk shooting and that led her to follow Maya to Oklahoma?
Yeah, maybe it would’ve been a bit of a stretch, but we just want to see these two superpowerful women team up, OK? Hey, on the bright side, now the Defenders Saga is canon, there’s nothing stopping crossovers aplenty happening as the street-level side of the MCU continues to expand.