Echo, the latest live-action series from Marvel, expands the story of Hawkeye breakout Maya Lopez, played by Alaqua Cox. As you might expect, the new series features a few notable cameos from other characters in the MCU.
Spoilers ahead for Echo!
The series debuts under the new “Marvel Spotlight” label, which purports that you don’t need outside knowledge of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. This may be true, from a certain point of view, but Echo is a spinoff of one MCU series and references at least one other. And there are also some juicy cameos that those with MCU knowledge can enjoy.
One character who is not making a cameo, I should say upfront, is Reservation Dogs star Devery Jacobs as Bonnie. While the actor also voiced Kahhori in Marvel’s What If season 2, she’s playing a new character in Echo. Jacobs confirmed in an interview with Collider that Echo and Bonnie are not connected in any way, and it’s just a (very cool) coincidence that she’s in two Marvel shows around the same time. Bonnie and Kahhori’s stories are set centuries apart, and they are members of different Indigenous tribes; Kahhori is Mohawk and Bonnie is Choctaw.
Now, onto the cameos!
Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin
You might recognize Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin, from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as well as the (former Netflix) series Daredevil. If you don’t, here’s what you need to know: he’s a crime lord who often finds himself entangled with street-level heroes in New York City. He was Matt Murdock’s main adversary in the first and third seasons, and is played by Vincent D’Onofrio in both Daredevil and Echo.
D’Onofrio also appeared in the Disney+ series Hawkeye, where Maya Lopez was also introduced. In that series, we learned that Maya is like a surrogate niece to Kingpin. That backstory is recapped and expanded upon in the first episode of Echo.
Hawkeye, a.k.a. Ronin
While you don’t see Jeremy Renner’s face (because he’s definitely not actually in the episode), there is a brief glimpse of Clint Barton in his Ronin era in the first episode of Echo. If you want to know more about what happened there, you’d have to watch Avengers: Endgame and Hawkeye. The gist of it is this: during the Blip, when Thanos made 50 percent of the population disappear with a snap of his fingers, Hawkeye’s grief drove him to take work as an assassin called Ronin. One of his kills was Maya’s father, William Lopez. Once Maya discovered Ronin’s identity, she sought revenge. However, at the end of Hawkeye, Barton reveals to Maya that her “uncle,” Kingpin, ordered the hit.
Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil
Echo marks Charlie Cox’s third appearance in the MCU since the third season of Netflix’s Daredevil. He briefly showed up in Spider-Man: No Way Home, flirted up a storm (and then some) in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and now this! I, for one, thought that the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen wouldn’t show up until the Echo finale or something. Imagine my surprise when he appears almost immediately in the series! As we know from Hawkeye, Maya worked for Kingpin. And as we know from Daredevil, Matt Murdock hates Kingpin. It’s no surprise that Maya would find herself up against her boss’ nemesis. The question is: will they end up on the same team?
(featured image: Disney+)
