Marvel’s Echo director Sydney Freeland reveals how the upcoming Disney+ series paid tribute to Maya Lopez’ Native American tribe by creating a special Choctaw language audio dub.
“In the process of working and collaborating with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, in working with the Choctaw language experts and consultants, it became very apparent that we needed to do a dub in Choctaw as well, and we’re incredibly proud of it,” Freeland said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“Placing the story of Echo in the actual Choctaw language helps make our character more authentic to her heritage because we get to delve into the specifics of Choctaw culture and traditions. I’m indigenous, I’m American, but I’m Navajo. And the Choctaw language and the Navajo language are completely different from each other; they’re as different as Portuguese and Polish. And so one of the things that was important for us was making sure that we had people who were experts in Choctaw language. But a lot of really great things came out of that collaboration — specifically, in the second episode of our series, we actually get to see a portion of pre-European contact America that I can genuinely say has never been seen on film before. That came as a direct result of our collaboration with the Choctaw Nation in trying to tell a more authentic story.”
Who is Echo?
Played by Alaqua Cox, Maya Lopez/Echo made her Marvel Cinematic Universe debut on the Disney+ series Hawkeye. With the ability to imitate the movements of her enemies in combat, Echo was established as the leader of the Tracksuit Mafia and adopted niece of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). The season finale of Hawkeye ended with Echo learning about the murder of her biological father at the hands of Fisk, and she shoots him off-screen during the episode’s closing moments.
The Echo series picks up following the events of Hawkeye as Fisk pursues his niece who flees New York to Oklahoma. While there, Echo gets in touch with her Choctaw Nation family as she confronts her past and embraces her Native roots.
Echo stars Alaqua Cox alongside Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin and Charlie Cox in a special appearance as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. Additional cast members include Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, Zahn McClarnon, Cody Lightning, and Graham Greene. It is the first MCU series under the new Marvel Spotlight banner and the first to be a TV-MA Disney+ exclusive.
Echo releases in its entirety on January 9, 2024, on Hulu and Disney+.
