Marvel Studios spotlights Indigenous antihero in ‘Echo’
Kalle Benallie
ICT
Alaqua Cox, Menominee and Mohican Nation, first began her journey as “Maya Lopez” in the TV mini series “Hawkeye” in 2021. It was her first acting gig ever. Now three years later, audiences will see Cox as the main character in Marvel Studios’ “Echo” on Jan. 9.
The mini series “Echo” will follow Lopez being pursued by Wilson Fisk’s criminal empire, which brings her home to Oklahoma where she must confront her own family and legacy. Native actors like Zahn McClarnon will play her father and Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, Cody Lightning and Chaske Spencer are appearing in the show as well.
Indigenous representation goes beyond behind the camera too with Steven Paul Judd, Kiowa and Choctaw, appearing as a co-writer on the show and Navajo creative Sydney Freeland directing an episode and being an executive producer.
Cox, who is deaf and an amputee, said her resilience began when she went through surgeries and had parents that were able to give her positive reinforcement growing up.
“It helped me become tough, become strong and become resilient. I think that that is a similar trait that I have to Maya and so I’m happy to have that trait I share with her,” she said.
It’s been revealed that in “Echo” Maya’s superpowers will be changed from the original comic stating she has photographic reflexes. Cox said Maya’s superpowers will be one of the most unique in the Marvel cinematic universe.
“I love her superpowers, but I don’t want to say exactly what her superpowers are but she’s able to connect with specific people, her ancestors — I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that but she does — she’s able to use her Indigenous culture and that is included a lot with the help of her ancestors, and we have that resilience, and to this day she’s able to do that so that’s cool to see that,” she said.
For her larger role Cox said Disney and Marvel supported her and prepared her by securing her an acting coach and American Sign Language consultant.
Cox said she hopes Indigenous youth will see a cast who look like them and know that they can do anything.
“I hope they’ll be proud and happy to be able to see their culture represented authentically and accurately on the screen,” she said.
Photo courtesy of ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Photo courtesy of ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Director and Executive Producer Sydney Freeland talks about what Indigenous audiences can expect from "Echo," which will be releasing Jan. 9.
Mature audience only tag
The January release of “Echo” is notably significant because it will debut all five episodes on Disney+ and Hulu, and it will be the first series from Marvel Studios to be rated TV-MA, meaning mature audience only.
Richie Palmer, one of the executive producers on the show, said that “Echo” is a different type of show and it wasn’t done to have the first TV-MA rated show but to tell the main character’s story without restriction.
“We knew we weren’t going to hold back with Maya Lopez. She’s a badass character that deserved all the badass-ery and we were not gonna limit it. Maya Lopez was introduced in an especially dark run of Daredevil comics from the late 90s,” Palmer said. “She just brings with her such a traumatic backstory, an emotional backstory that we didn’t want to shy away from and to hold any of it back would have done the character a disservice.”
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and advisers from IllumiNative also partnered with “Echo” to ensure Choctaw culture, legends and history were portrayed correctly. Palmer credited their partnership with the show’s success.
“Our Choctaw partners were awesome and always available to us and were there with us when we were shooting some of the major sequences, were always just a phone call away from even the edit bay with Sydney,” he said.
Devery Jacobs, Mohawk, who plays the character “Bonnie” said the opportunity to work on “Echo” was something she ran toward because of the story following an Indigenous superhero, antihero, working with Freeland again and being part of the Marvel cinematic universe. Jacobs recently starred in “Reservation Dogs.”
“I hope that for Indigenous audiences watching “Echo” that they get to see just how badass we are and could be, and for non-Native audiences, I hope people take away just the different ways that we can be. There isn’t one specific way to be Indigenous,” they said.
Chaske Spencer, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Lakota Sioux, who plays “Henry,” said he was on the edge of his seat when Freeland relayed how the story of “Echo” was going to go, who was on the cast and about Cox.
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“I’m very happy to be part of it and to work with everybody because you got mad talent on this series, mad talent from the top and bottom. I think people are going to be blown away by Alaqua’s performance,” Spencer said.
American Sign Language
In “Echo,” Jacobs and Spencer are tasked with acting using American Sign Language. For Spencer it was a challenge, due to the quick script changes that occur in television and learning how there are different accents and cultures in ASL.
“I definitely had some sleepless nights but it was worth it,” he said.
Jacobs noted a sense of responsibility on being hearing actors who are playing characters who are also hearing but use sign language to communicate with someone who is deaf.
“For myself I play a CODA, which is a child of deaf adults, and making sure I appear proficient enough in ASL was really important, definitely stressful but also I think it was a lot of fun. I’m still learning and I wanna keep learning ASL. It opened a door to a community, a culture that’s so vibrant and beautiful and also has a lot of Indigenous people within that community itself,” she said.
Jacobs added Plains Indian Sign Language will also be featured in “Echo.”
Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk in "Echo." Photo courtesy of ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays the antagonist “Wilson Fisk,” is playing the character for the third time from previous work in “Daredevil” and “Hawkeye.” He will be appearing as Fisk again in “Daredevil: Born Again,” sometime this year.
D’Onofrio said he enjoys exploring the emotionality of his character Fisk and in “Echo” audiences can expect to see Fisk’s emotional relationship with Cox’s character be central to the show.
He praised Cox’s impressive performance as a newcomer and working with Freeland.
“She’s going to go down as one of my favorite directors in my career. She’s just so good at what she does, it’s just everyday on set was just a pleasure to work with her and learning about this world with Maya through the Native American ancestry,” he said. “The Native American actors that were in the show, their acting and how they felt about the whole thing was quite super interesting and just lovely.”
Freeland called the first day of shooting “terrifying and then exhilarating.”
“To have the chance to tell a Native Indigenous story on this scope and scale was tremendously exciting but it can also be tremendously daunting, but I think when you actually get to shooting you’ve tried to prep as humanly as possible so that when you actually get to start shooting hopefully it feels a little more natural,” Freeland said.
The show brought Freeland and Indigenous talent that she worked with in the past like Julia Jones, Jana Schmieding, Jacobs and McClarnon together again. She said it’s a good feeling in contrast to other projects when she feels like the only person on set.
“The Native community is relatively small so the actors, the directors, the writers, we all kind of know each other, associate with each other and talk to each other on and off set so it was actually a lot of fun and very relaxing to be working with friends,” she said.
Freeland hopes that Native audiences not only see a Native American character on screen but a complex, complicated human portrayal of Indigenous people in front of and behind the camera.
“That’s one of the things I’m so excited about this series is that we get to tell a story about a character who’s a villain and we get to work in all these kinds of shades in gray and incorporate the Native aspects of things. It just creates a great sort of jumping off point for a story,” she said.
Some Native humor can also be expected in “Echo” but Freeland said it had to be dialed back a little bit for the show.
Freeland also praised Cox’s ability to effortlessly transition from filming a few days on “Hawkeye” to then work on “Echo” for three months. She said it’s not something many people can do.
“You have to have a certain type of internal drive and you have to have a certain constitution about you as a person. And I think hearing Alaqua talk about her experience growing up she comes across as a very tough individual and I think her Indigenous upbringing has a lot to do with that,” Freeland said.
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