Sydney Freeland (‘Echo’ director): Telling a Native American story in the Marvel universe ‘is the best of both worlds’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

“It’s incredibly fulfilling to be a part of a Marvel project, but then to have it be an indigenous character is the best of both worlds,” declares director and executive producer Sydney Freeland about bringing the indigenous Marvel superhero “Echo” to life. For our recent webchat, the proud Native American director adds, “I grew up going to powwows and I grew up reading Marvel comic books. Those two things never overlapped or interjected together. So, what I love about this series is that those two things came smashing together in a great, bloody and violent way.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

SEE Exclusive Video Interview: Alaqua Cox (‘Echo’)

In “Echo,” Alaqua Cox stars as Maya Lopez (a.k.a. “Echo”), reprising her role from “Hawkeye” as a deaf amputee Native American Choctaw woman and former leader of a criminal gang working for Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio, who also returns as the criminal kingpin). The five-episode limited series also stars Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Charlie Cox, Devery Jacobs, Zahn McClarnon, Cody Lightning and Oscar nominee Graham Greene. The action drama takes place five months after the events of “Hawkeye,” as Maya is being pursued by Fisk’s mob, leading her to return to her Oklahoma hometown, where she comes to terms with her past, her family and her Choctaw roots. “Echo” is based on the Marvel Comics featuring the character of the same name and is a spin-off of the 2021 dramedy “Hawkeye,” starring Jeremy Renner (who also reprises his role as Hawkeye in a brief stint in “Echo”). It is the tenth television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), sharing continuity with the films of the franchise and is the first series under the “Marvel Spotlight” banner for series that focus more on character-driven stories and less on the larger MCU narrative.

“What makes that character so compelling is that in ‘Hawkeye’ she’s a villain, and she’s not Captain America, she’s not even Tony Stark. She’s a straight up villain, and she has aspirations to to move up in in the criminal underworld,” Freeland says about the show’s star. “To me that was the most interesting aspect about the character, and then you have the indigenous aspect of things and also the deaf side of things. You need someone who can infuse authenticity into all those different aspects. And I think that’s where with Alaqua, she’s complete package,” she says. “Alaqua brought a lot of her own personal experience to the role and her lived experience as an indigenous woman; as a deaf woman”

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