Spoilers ahead for Echo on Disney+.
Marvel’s Echo is finally here! The series starring Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez is not only the MCU’s first bingeable series, but the first to have a mature rating. While Echo has been greatly advertised as taking place on a more gritty side of the street, the latest of Marvel TV shows opened on a rather supernatural front. When CinemaBlend spoke to Echo director and producer Sydney Freeland, she shared with us why she chose to open the show how she did.
Echo opens with a group of indigenous people rising from magical pools. One woman decides to drink from one of the pools, leading to a bird appearing in front of her and then flying away. Suddenly, the group’s home begins to furiously shake before they are transported to a new place, blooming with greenery and the gaze of the sun. Their clay forms begin to melt away to reveal their human forms. The three-minute sequence leads into young Maya’s origin story. What was that all about?
Echo’s Sydney Freeland Shares Collaboration With Choctaw Nation
When CinemaBlend spoke to Sydney Freeland about the supernatural opening scene, the show’s director/producer shared the reasoning behind it. In Freeland’s words:
I think we always knew that we were gonna tell a sort of grounded street level, kind of a grittier side of things story revolving around Maya Lopez. But, the other thing we always knew we were gonna explore was her ancestral lineage. We didn't know that we were gonna explore her matrilineal ancestry line, that was something that sort of came about in the writing process and as the project evolved. And then, as we went further and further back in time and as we incorporated the Choctaw Nation, then we got to create more specifics. So in the beginning of the first episode, we actually are there for one of the Choctaw creation stories. And that was something that came as a direct result of our collaboration with the Choctaw Nation.
As Echo explores Maya Lopez’s origins and relationship with Kingpin across five episodes, it also includes flashbacks to the character’s line of descent across generations of women starting with the opening scene. Before we delve deeper into what that story is, let’s talk more about the Choctaw Nation’s involvement in Echo. The Choctaw Nation is a Native American territory that covers over six million acres of southeast Oklahoma, and the tribe Maya hails from the series. When CinemaBlend attended an event at Walt Disney Studios about the series, Freeland said this about getting the Choctaw Nation involved in the show:
We had a meeting with them early on and basically presented the series to them in the same way [I’d pitch a TV show]. Like, I had a pitch deck and I pitched them the project and said like ‘Hey, this is what the show is. It's not gonna be hold your hand, it's not gonna be earnest. It's gonna be a little more violent, but we feel like there's a great story behind it. And, um, what do y'all think?’ And it was crickets, on the other side of the table, right? And I think what I realized in that moment was like, which I think rarely happens in my experience with being portrayed in native films, is going to the people and getting their partnership. So basically, I said like, ‘No, no, we're not here to tell you what we're gonna do. We are here to create a dialogue so that we can get your input and create a more authentic portrayal of the Choctaw people and culture.’
Freeland herself is Native American, but she grew up on a Navajo reservation, and was looking for authenticity when bringing the story of Maya Lopez to Echo. The opening scene was a result of the collaboration with the Choctaw Nation.
The Choctaw Story Behind The Opening Scene Of Marvel’s Echo
For generations, the Choctaw people have passed down various stories to explain their own origins. Per the National Park Service, there’s a sacred platform mound in southern Mississippi called “Nanih Waiya” which plays a “central role in the tribe’s origin legends.” In the Choctaw story, the Choctaw people emerged from the underworld via the mound when it “gave birth to the tribe.” The mound is 25 feet high, 218 feet long and 140 feet wide and remains maintained by the National Park Service. Its actual age remains unknown.
The birth of the Choctaw people has now been dramatized through the opening scene of Echo! As you enjoy the new series, check out the strong opinions from critics thus far, our breakdown of the final shot of the series, and what upcoming Marvel TV shows are coming up next here on CinemaBlend.
