Echo Will Introduce New Marvel Spotlight Banner, For People Who Hate Doing MCU Homework
Marvel Studios' shared universe model launched one of the most successful movie franchises of all time, and quickly became the envy of Hollywood. After "The Avengers" grossed $1.5 billion at the box office, every studio was racing to establish its own cinematic universe (some more successful than others). But 15 years after Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man made his big screen debut, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is groaning under the weight of its own continuity.
It's a problem that has particularly been exacerbated by the MCU's expansion onto Disney+. Keen to build subscribers for its new streaming service, Disney premiered eight MCU TV shows in less than two years, a move that even CEO Bob Iger has said "diluted focus and attention" for the brand. Now, in an apparent effort to shed the feeling that each new MCU release requires an exhausting amount of homework, Marvel Studios is launching a new banner called Marvel Spotlight. Named after the anthology comic book series and debuting with upcoming Disney+ show "Echo," Marvel Spotlight will (in theory) allow viewers to just sit down and jump right into a story. Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum explained (via Marvel.com):
"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."
It's certainly a noble goal — but "Echo" is a bit of an odd choice for Marvel Spotlight's maiden voyage.
Unfortunately, it's all connected
Marvel Spotlight isn't a new concept. "Grounded, character-driven stories that focus on street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity" was essentially the blueprint for Netflix's Marvel TV shows, which kicked off with the critically-acclaimed series "Daredevil." Aside from a few vague allusions to "The Incident" (aka that time when Loki's army of aliens invaded New York City and made a big mess), "Daredevil" existed independently from the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the events of the show were certainly never acknowledged by the movies. Now, Daredevil and the other characters from Netflix's Defenders miniverse have been brought under the Disney+ umbrella and Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock has already returned in a more fun-loving form as a love interest in "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law."
Probably a better spawning point for Marvel Spotlight would have been Michael Giacchino's spooky special "Werewolf By Night" or the Oscar Isaac-led "Moon Knight," since neither contained any direct references to the MCU. "Echo," on the other hand, follows Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), a character who first appeared in the Disney+ series "Hawkeye," which itself was a solo spin-off starring a character from the movies. "Hawkeye" also brought back Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin from Netflix's "Daredevil" series, and Kingpin will return as an antagonist in "Echo."
So, Marvel's first "no homework required" series is a spin-off of a spin-off. It focuses on a character whose origin story was already explored (albeit in brief) in another show, and features a villain borrowed from a previous show who is also set to appear in an another upcoming series (the Disney+ reboot "Daredevil: Born Again"). Under those circumstances, the promise of a self-contained story seems a bit dubious.
Extra credit
The continuity swamp isn't just an issue for Marvel. Another of Disney's acquired brands also recently struggled with the same issue, as "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels" creator Dave Filoni brought his original characters to life in the live-action series "Ahsoka." While existing fans were already onboard, the expense of the show meant it needed to be accessible to people who hadn't already followed these characters across 208 episodes (and a movie). Asked by Collider which arcs in the previous shows fans should familiarize themselves with before "Ahsoka," Filoni replied, "You wouldn't need to watch any of them. But you really should."
"It's all connected!" isn't just a feature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; it's been pivotal to its success. But now, all that homework is holding it back. A recent report by Variety noted that upcoming movie "The Marvels" — which is a sequel not only to the film "Captain Marvel" but also the Disney+ shows "Wandavision" and "Ms. Marvel" — is tracking for an opening weekend of $75-80 million. That's on the low end for the MCU, and worrying for a movie with a production budget north of $270 million.
"Marvel Spotlight" makes sense as a pivot, but a show with as much continuity baggage as "Echo" seems like a poor choice to kick off this new banner. Of course, Marvel doesn't exactly have a lot of options right now. Intransigence from Disney and other Hollywood studios in the face of dual industry strikes this year has resulted in Marvel Studios productions being almost completely shut down for the last six months. It's hard to steer a ship that isn't moving.