Echo premiered earlier this week and, for the most part, it's been met with a positive response. There were clearly behind-the-scenes issues which saw the show put through the wringer during post-production, but Maya Lopez's story is well worth checking out.
Deadline recently caught up with Echo writer Amy Rardin and asked about Maya's final scene with The Kingpin. In that, she appears to use her newfound abilities to heal her uncle's emotional trauma so he can move on from the past in the same way she has. The question is, did it work?
"However messed up their relationship is, Kingpin is obviously a monster, but there is love there, in its own weird way. Kingpin has the capacity for love in his very twisted way. He was one of the people who raised Maya, and deep down I think, she does love him, even though she realizes he did all these horrible things and manipulated her and and is a killer and not a good person."
"I think what makes their relationship so interesting is she’s one of the few people that can see glimpses of goodness in him. And so it’s her not giving up on him at the end. He just can’t do it," she added, seemingly confirming Wilson Fisk is no changed man following this clash.
Rardin was also asked about Daredevil's cameo (which ultimately amounted to little more than 90 seconds), explaining the importance of that scene to Maya's story.
"I mean, we were really excited to get to use Daredevil, because he’s a very important part of in the [Echo] comics. So we knew that we were going to want to use him in a specific way. The fight between Daredevil and Maya was very important to Sydney [Freeland]. We talked a lot in the room about consistently keeping the story from Maya’s point of view. Because we know how excited everyone is about Daredevil."
"But really what that fight is about is Maya going from student to practical. It’s the first time she kills someone. It’s the first time she proves herself to Kingpin. She took on one of his biggest rivals. It’s her coming into her own in Fisk’s operation. So that is how we approached that fight. To get to be able to use Daredevil was amazing, but it was very much in service of Maya’s story and who she is at that time in her life."
In the comics, Matt Murdock and Maya embark on a romantic relationship, only for things to take an unexpected twist when she becomes Echo and sets out to kill his alter-ego, Daredevil (after The Kingpin fooled her into believing the Man Without Fear murdered him). There wasn't time for that in this series, though it's a shame they only crossed paths once.
As for the benefits of making Echo under the newly launched Marvel Spotlight banner - which we're pretty sure wasn't a thing when the show was conceived and in production - Rardin shared this about what it meant for the series.
"Origin stories are great. They’re wonderful and we all love watching them, but I think that [Marvel] wanted to do a different kind of story. And as a writer, I thought that was really exciting. So in terms of not having the traditional story points that you see in this [type of] origin story and getting to approach this more as a family drama…it’s kind of a different way in. I think we could expand on the family, expand on the town, the color of the townspeople that we see come in and out. I think that [Marvel spotlight banner] gave us the freedom to do that. So it was very creatively freeing for sure."
All five episodes of Echo are now streaming on Disney+.