Marvel is lightening the load, sort of. After releasing the trailer for Echo — starring Alaqua Cox as the deaf Choctaw hero who made her debut appearance in 2021’s Hawkeye — Marvel’s head of streaming, Brad Winderbaum, is distancing it from the MCU narrative. The series will be the first to be positioned under the company’s new banner, “Marvel Spotlight,†according to Marvel. He explained the banner as “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.†In short, it’ll signal to watchers that you won’t need 30-plus movies’ worth of canon knowledge to tune into Echo. Honestly, who has the time?
Projects under the banner will begin with a fancy-schmancy new logo. Complete with a score from prolific composer Michael Giacchino (and director of Marvel’s Werewolf Within), the “Marvel Spotlight†concept is pulled straight from the comics under the same name in the ’70s, as that anthology series brought to life characters like Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, and Spider-Woman. “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,†Winderbaum said. Well, we’ll see about that! We’ve been lied to before.