Look, we can all agree that there’s probably too much Marvel Cinematic Universe content these days, but the studio itself creating a brand new offshoot and then immediately stigmatizing it as inessential probably isn’t the smartest way to go about solving the problem.
It’s easy to forget just how many nods, winks, callbacks, and Easter Eggs the Defenders Saga on Netflix had towards the big screen franchise’s Phase One, and that’s to say nothing of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. before they were all tossed onto the canonical scrapheap.
However, it appears history is set to repeat itself, with Echo‘s unfortunate status as an experiment in every sense of the word a dry run of sorts for just how interested audiences are going to be in a series that the people who literally oversaw its development, creation, and execution have dubbed unimportant in the grand scheme of things.
You get where executive Brad Winderbaum is coming from, but there’s probably a much better way of saying 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. 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.”
Echo isn’t connected to the overarching narrative of the Multiverse Saga, which is fine. However, comparing it to a comic book that doesn’t need to be read is insane, and hardly a glowing appraisal considering the apathy that’s been swamping Phase Five since the outset.