Thought the MCU was confusing enough? Well, think again as Marvel Studios has just found a way to make our understanding of the ever-growing Multiverse Saga yet more difficult, even if it was done with the best of intentions. Say hello to the studio’s brand-new Marvel Spotlight banner, debuting with Echo.
From what we can gather, Marvel Spotlight covers those MCU projects that are largely standalone and don’t require much in the way of franchise homework to watch and enjoy them. This is despite Echo being a clear sequel to Hawkeye, a spiritual successor to Netflix’s Daredevil, and part of Matt Murdock’s grand return to the MCU that began with Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. But whatever, apparently it’s standalone.
“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,” is how Marvel’s Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum summed it up. This begs the question, then, which other upcoming MCU projects — whether on Disney Plus or perhaps even on the big screen — will be released under the Marvel Spotlight brand?
Daredevil: Born Again
Naturally, if Echo is Marvel Spotlight, the first other show on its way that we’re wondering could join it is Daredevil: Born Again. Like Maya Lopez’s series, Born Again will surely be a “grounded, character-driven” piece, regardless of however Marvel ends up retooling the project following its page-one overhaul. As much as we’d like to see it, the Hell’s Kitchen hero is unlikely to ever join the Avengers’ ranks, right? So presumably his adventures will be more Spotlight-linked than Multiverse Saga-related.
Moon Knight season 2
In the wake of Marvel Spotlight’s announcement, fans are wondering which earlier Phase Four and Five projects might’ve fallen under the banner had it existed at the time, or could even be retroactively rebranded as part of it. Moon Knight is one of those at the top of the list given how self-contained the Oscar Isaac vehicle is. It’s always seemed probable that Marvel would make a second season at some point, so perhaps that will officially canonize Khonshu’s avatar as a Spotlight character.
Ghost Rider
So here’s something else Winderbaum said about the Marvel Spotlight brand. “Just like comics fans didn’t need to read Avengers or Fantastic Four to enjoy a Ghost Rider Spotlight comic,” he teased, “our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story.” Hmm, you could’ve picked any character to reference there, Brad, and you went with Johnny Blaze? Is this a hint that those rumors of a new Ghost Rider project being in development were on the money?
Wonder Man
With Echo being Marvel Spotlight, and given Winderbaum’s words, we can perhaps infer that the banner is specifically for those lesser-known characters that don’t have the same kind of brand recognition as the universe’s leads. If that is the case then Wonder Man would certainly fit that bill, as the comedic series will see Aquaman‘s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as B-list hero Simon Williams, an actor who moonlights as a superhero. This is assuming the show actually ever happens, of course, amid worries it’s been canned.
Blade
Again, we’re not entirely clear of the specific parameters of Marvel Spotlight, so it’s unknown if it will only apply to Disney Plus series. If it also can be used for movies, though, then Blade is certainly ripe to fall under the banner. Sure, Mahershala Ali got an audio cameo in Eternals, but we’re all expecting the Daywalker’s MCU debut to stand apart from the threat of Kang the Conqueror and the road to Secret Wars. Maybe reconceptualizing the film as a Spotlight project could help it finally crawl out of development hell.