Remember the good, old days when Marvel and Netflix collaborated to bring the likes of Daredevil and Kingpin to the small screen with an abundance of violence? Well, judging by the first trailer for Marvel’s Echo series, we’re going to see plenty of bloodshed in the MCU, and Kingpin is right at the heart of it!
I have to admit, I’ve been very skeptical about the way the MCU might use such gritty Marvel characters. You simply cannot have a brute of a man like Kingpin, who could crush someone with his bare hands, and try to tame him for a family friendly Marvel series. Luckily, the Echo release date is not something I’ll be counting down to with my kids.
The first trailer for the Phase 5 show has arrived and it’s safe to say my excitement levels just shot through the roof. Why? Because, if this trailer is anything to go by, Marvel is taking us back to the glory days of the Kingpin who would slam a guy’s head in a car door for speaking out of turn.
It may have Echo in the title, but Marvel knows full well that most of us are here to see Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin carve out a path of destruction, and the Marvel villain does not disappoint in this two minute teaser. He starts off by pummelling a street vendor who’s mean to young Maya, and ends by asking “Who’s the real monster?”
Well, perhaps the titular anti-hero is going to give Wilson Fisk a run for his money. You see, he’s not the only one kicking ass and taking names, and Maya commits her fair share of heinous violence throughout the trailer, including snapping someone’s neck, which is fun.
There’s also a brief glimpse of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil somersaulting through the air mid-fight, which means we’ll at least get to see the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen in action while we wait for the Daredevil season 4 release date (we could be waiting a long time, sadly).
I wasn’t particularly excited about this show before — a spin-off of the Hawkeye spin-off isn’t exactly the kind of project we’d have pinned the hopes of the MCU’s future on — but the fact that Echo will be Marvel’s first TV-MA rated series certainly changes things. I just really hope this trailer isn’t misleading us and that Marvel actually delivers on the promise of a more brutal series for its older demographic. And hopefully, Echo can be successful enough to lead to more of the same in the future, because lord knows Daredevil needs as much free reign as possible.
Another cool thing in this trailer – it comes with Choctaw subtitles, which is a really nice, inclusive touch from Marvel. With the amount of footage leaning into Maya’s heritage as a Native American, I really hope this is also another good sign of things to come, and that the show will really delve into this rich culture.
We’ll have to wait until January 10, 2024 to know for sure. But, that gives us plenty of time to rewatch all the Marvel movies in order (you can also do that, by checking out the entire Infinity Saga on Disney Plus). We’ve also got lots of guides on upcoming Marvel movies like Deadpool 3, which should be full of violence, and other new movies like The Marvels, which will be a bit more family appropriate.