With the MCU's grasp on the small screen having recently expanded with the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier's action-packed premiere, and with tons of shows still on the horizon, Marvel could certainly go a while without kicking off active development on any new projects. But this is Kevin Feige we're talking about, so little surprise should accompany a new report claiming Disney+ is already gearing up for a Hawkeye TV spinoff, though not one focused on either Jeremy Renner's hero or Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop.
If sources are correct, early development is in place for a Hawkeye follow-up series based on the superhero Echo, according to Variety. Echo, who will be part of the superheroics in the first (and possibly only) season dedicated to the MCU archer(s), is already set to be portrayed by Alaqua Cox in a whopper of a first TV role.
Echo is a deaf Native American hero whose real name is Maya Lopez, and whose powers allow her to perfectly mimic her opponents, from basic movements to complex fighting styles. She would definitely make for an intriguing TV lead – can you just imagine the implementation of dance battles to Disney-owned music?!? – and the character's deafness could inspire some very unique audio and visual concepts, in the vein of how Daredevil's powers were brought to life in the Netflix series.
Tropic Thunder and Get Hard screenwriter Etan Cohen and wife Emily Bowen-Cohen are reportedly on board as writers and executive producers. It's also stated that a writers room has already been formed for the Echo-based project, which definitely speaks to the studios' confidence that Hawkeye and the new-to-live-action superhero Echo are worthy of an expansion before audiences even know what to expect from the first show. Though if Cohen's career is anything to go by, the spinoff project would presumably be geared heavily toward comedy, which I will readily embrace.
If the spinoff news is indeed legit, an Echo-geared TV show would obviously be the first of its kind in several ways. However, no confirmation has been offered up yet by Disney or Marvel, so here's hoping the early news breakage doesn't have a negative effect on the project's potential.
With five more episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on the way, Disney+ will later give Marvel fans seasons of What If...?, Loki, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Moon Knight, Ironheart and Armor Wars. On top of all that will be Secret Invasion, which recently cast One Night in Miami's Kingsley Ben-Adir to co-star opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn as an unidentified big bad. Never a dull moment in the MCU, at least when a pandemic isn't stalling everything.
Hawkeye is set to debut on Disney+ in late 2021, though no specific dates have been revealed just yet. We're still waiting on any kind of proper trailer or artwork to go along with all the set photos that definitely felt purposefully leaked in hindsight, so perhaps a first official look at Alaqua Cox's Echo is coming soon.
