For many viewers, Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) fatigue is all too real. When WandaVision, the first-ever MCU live-action TV series, dropped on Disney Plus in 2021, the superhero-sized story about grief set the bar high. Incredibly high. Since then Marvel fans have been inundated with series, ranging from the good (Loki, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, What If…?) to the solid (Hawkeye, Moon Knight) to the “wow, why wasn’t this just a movie?” (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier).Initially, Marvel showed no signs of slowing down in 2023. Originally, series premieres for Echo, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, X-Men 97, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, and Daredevil: Born Again were all slated for release, alongside second seasons of Loki and What If…? But that all shifted a few months back — and it’s definitely for the better.In late December 2022, Disney Plus confirmed just three MCU shows will have 2023 release dates: Secret Invasion, which stars Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and zeroes in on the shape-shifting Skrulls; Ironheart, which centers on Dominique Thorne's Riri Wiliams, an MIT student-turned-superhero who debuted in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; and the sophomore season of the timeline-bending Loki.
This news doesn’t mean that Disney and Marvel won’t add a few more titles back to the 2023 lineup. In fact, it’d be surprising if they didn’t. But after a massive last two years — Marvel churned out 17 movies and streaming titles across 2021 and 2022 — this year’s MCU offerings feel a bit thin. And, of all the now-shifted MCU shows, the absence of Echo in 2023 feels the most glaring, especially in light of the show’s allegedly troubled production. So, why is Echo’s delay so concerning — and what does it say about Marvel’s creative process as a whole?
Marvel Has Favored Quantity Over Quality, But Is That Approach Changing in 2023?
Post-Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), even the MCU’s theatrical releases have been mega-hits or mega-misfires. After a tumbleweed-2020, blockbusters like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) and Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) were a great way to return to the theaters — or, at least, the feature-length MCU. But there were also some relative duds: even with an all-star cast, Eternals (2021) didn’t make the waves Marvel had hoped, and, despite Florence Pugh’s star turn as Yelena Belova, Black Widow (2021) felt a bit “too little, too late.”
And while 2022 gave the world Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, it also forced people into theaters for sequels that didn’t live up — Thor: Love and Thunder — and a multiverse movie that paled in comparison to Everything Everywhere All at Once. Add these releases to all of those shows mentioned above and Marvel’s creative process — and release approach — definitely favored quantity over quality.
Some of that excess stems, no doubt, from a COVID-19-related backlog. Disney withheld a bunch of its finished films, eventually pushing some onto its streaming platform. (Except when it came to would-be-blockbuster MCU releases.) When it comes to the so-called Streaming Wars, that’s been Netflix’s approach, too. Even HBO Max (before the Discovery merger, anyway) seemed keen to green light away.
It’s no secret that Disney owns far too many of the world’s most beloved multimedia franchises. At first, the company’s acquisition of Lucasfilm and Marvel seemed like wins; with Disney’s money and reach, the soon-to-come MCU and Star Wars releases excited fans. But, somewhere along the way, Disney turned that boon into a real glut.
Some long-awaited productions felt rushed or like blatant fan-service cash-grabs. The kind of pandering that’s incredibly transparent, lacking, and without thrill. Falling behind on Marvel content and Star Wars shows feels like a talking point now, as common as discussing the weather. Not only has it become increasingly difficult to catch up, but the flood of releases seems to take something away from the stories fans love so much.
Ahead of the release of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, undervalued and overworked artists and other crew members were forced to crunch for deadlines, only to have viewers criticize their efforts. And, strange though it is to say, sometimes the very act of waiting for the latest installment in a beloved series adds to the magic.
The Echo Delay Is a Microcosm of Marvel’s Still-Troubled Approach
What does all this have to do with Echo, specifically? For now, the nature of the show’s production issues can only be speculated on. In November 2022, Lizzie Hill of The Cosmic Circus shared some troubling tweets about Marvel’s upcoming Disney Plus series, noting that she was uncharacteristically “concerned” about the show’s production.
Starring Alaqua Cox, a deaf Indigenous actor, Echo is a spinoff of Hawkeye that centers on Maya Lopez, a martial artist capable of perfectly copying another person's movements. After production wrapped in late August 2022, Marvel Studios shared footage from the show with fans for the first time at the D23 Fan Expo in September. However, Echo was recently removed from the 2023 release slate.
Focusing on quality is a solid long-term strategy for Marvel Studios as it navigates fans’ MCU fatigue, but, at this point, is pushing releases by a year or more really the way to go about course correcting? Marvel’s “greatest crossover of all time” mentality is proving to be unsustainable. In the end, the approach is tarnishing the stories and characters fans care about.
In recent releases, new characters are dropped in to set up future arcs — not because they feel integral to the story at hand. Take Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), for example: a live-action portrayal of America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) is awesome, in theory — but, ultimately, her character was relegated to being a powers-focused plot device more than the hero she is on the page. That’s a staggering disservice — to the character and fans alike.
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Even in Hawkeye, Maya Lopez was a nuanced, complicated character. At first, she served as the series’ on-the-ground antagonist. Later, she was revealed to be Kingpin’s adopted “daughter” of sorts. After learning the truth about her biological father’s death, Maya took surprising, decisive action. Picking up after the events of Hawkeye, Echo will have Cox’s character returning to her home and reconnecting with her roots.
All of this to say, it’s hard to think of another upcoming MCU show with such character-driven potential. From Secret Invasion to Loki, the shows Disney and Marvel are prioritizing in 2023 are fodder for cameos, crossovers, and setting up future MCU installments. While slowing up on releases to concentrate on telling quality stories will serve Marvel Studios well, the entertainment titan also needs to focus on shows that stake out new ground — that don’t just feel like ads for this phase’s Infinity War.
The concern over Echo’s delay isn’t grounded in worries about the series itself. Instead, that concern stems from the fact that Marvel might be missing a key ingredient in the seeming restructuring of the studios’ creative process: self-contained stories can be just as effective — if not more effective — than ambitious crossovers and multiversal wars. In fact, Echo, and future projects like it, can reshape the MCU for the better, and lessen that superhero fatigue.
As of this writing, Echo is reportedly set to premiere in early 2024, but that release window is subject to change.