Echo underwent a great many changes before arriving on Disney+. For starters, it lost an episode and sweeping changes were made to the story either through reshoots or during post-production (which is the norm for Marvel Studios but a move which still suggests the Hawkeye spin-off needed some help).
While Charlie Cox's Daredevil was put front and centre in Echo's marketing campaign, the Man Without Fear's screentime amounted to no more than 90 seconds.
We've seen chatter about an alternate ending with Maya Lopez returning to New York City and potentially being recruited by 'ol Hornhead, but scooper @CanWeGetToast has today shared some major new details about his original role in Echo.
It's said that, in an earlier iteration of the series, Maya would have had a contact in New York City - Matt Murdock - keeping her up to date. In the second episode, she was going to reach out to Matt to see if anyone in the Big Apple had picked up on the fact she'd bombed one of The Kingpin's armouries. It's then he notified her that she has only a couple of days before his men show up.
In episode five, Maya was going to ask Matt who was making a play for Wilson Fisk's territory and, in the finale - the scrapped sixth episode - the anti-hero was set to text her new ally and tell him to "do it," meaning he should round up his friends in New York City to take down The Kingin's empire.
Eventually, we'd have got a big reveal with Matt bailing Maya out after she shot Fisk - it seems the plan was for her to have been arrested rather than escape - and helping her strike a deal with the FBI to provide them with the information they need to take down the villain once and for all.
Echo supposedly ended with Maya returning to New York (with Bonnie at her side) to deal with some unfinished business and set up a role in Daredevil: Born Again.
This makes for an interesting read but, as it's largely taken out of context, it's hard to say how any of it links up with what we did see in Echo. We recently learned that Maya initially sided with The Kingpin, faking her uncle's death to prove her loyalty; that sounds like something a person who is undercover might do!
Chances are we'll never know what Marvel Studios originally had planned for Echo. This version clearly wasn't working, anyway, and Kevin Feige must have concluded it was worth cutting Daredevil and simplifying the story.
As things stand, we don't expect Maya to make an appearance in Daredevil: Born Again.