Rumor: Marvel Studios Planned To Give ‘Echo’ The ‘Batgirl’ Treatment, Possibly Saved It To Serve As Filler During WGA Writer’s Strike
Spencer Baculi
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According to the latest whisper on the street, Marvel’s upcoming Echo is so abysmal in quality that the studio wanted to give the Disney Plus series the Batgirl treatment, only choosing not to at the last second in order to have something to air during a potential content drought resulting from the currently ongoing WGA Writer’s Strike.
Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin and Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez in Marvel Studios’ HAWKEYE. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Word of Marvel’s disappointment in their resident deaf, one-legged vigilante was first raised by veteran studio stuntman Chris Brewster during a July 21st appearance on the Ikuzo Unscripted podcast.
Following a brief recollection of his experience working on the original Netflix Daredevil series, Brewster – who served not only as Chris Evans and Charlie Cox’s respective stunt doubles in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the original Daredevil, but also as either a stunt coordinator or performer on Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Agents of S.H.I.E.LD., The Defenders, The Punisher, Black Panther, Ant-Man and the Wasp, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Ms. Marvel – broke the unfortunate news to hosts Peter Dzakovic and Luka Vucic that Marvel was doing away with that incarnation of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
Daredevil (Charlie Cox) turns the tables on Elektra (Élodie Yung) in Daredevil Season 2 Episode 12 “The Dark at the End of the Tunnel” (2015), Marvel Entertainment
Speaking to Marvel’s upcoming Daredevil: Born Again Disney Plus series, Brewster revealed, “Marvel has told every person working on that show that they don’t want Born Again to look anything like the Netflix Daredevil series.”
Taking note of Dzakovic and Vucic’s vocal disappointment, the stuntman then asserted, “Trust me, not only did I work on the show, I was one of the biggest fans of the show. I think that the Marvel Netflix Daredevil was a masterpiece.”
Daredevil (Charlie Cox) emerges victorious in Daredevil Season 1 Episode 13 “Daredevil” (2015), Marvel Entertainment
“I think that the casting was perfect,” he further praised. “I think that every showrunner, every person who worked on that show, was a genius. It was an incredible experience and in my opinion, and like most people agree on, it was Marvel’s best streaming show. I think that Charlie and Vincent absolutely crushed it as their characters. I think that every person who worked on the show absolutely nailed it.”
Sadly, Brewster’s positive sentiments ended there, as in terms of the character’s future, the stuntman lamented, “I think that, now that the MCU has taken over the character, they are really, really hurting it.”
Daredevil (Charlie Cox) is confused after being literally dropped into the scene in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1 Episode 9 “Whose Show Is This?” (2022), Marvel Entertainment via Disney Plus
“If you watched She-Hulk, they turned Daredevil into a cartoon,” he began his criticism of Horn Head’s costumed MCU debut. “It’s all animated and it looks bad. I love CG to enhance real movement, but if you don’t have any real movement, it just becomes a cartoon. It’s just CG. There’s no weight to it.”
“And what always made the action on Daredevil so good is that it was visceral,” Brewster asserted. ” You felt what Charlie was feeling. Between his performance, and just being in there, in the action. And anything that you saw, we really did, you know. We had to put somebody on a wire. [When] We needed something to enhance the movement we would [use CG], but it was never a cartoon. It was live-action. And you will never match the energy that live-action has. So I think you know, that She-Hulk was a massive step-down as far as the movement goes and the action.”
Concept art for Daredevil’s (Charlie Cox) walk-of-shame joke in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Season 1 Episode 8 “Ribbit and Rip It” (2022), Marvel Entertainment via Disney Plus
It was at this point that, in his criticism, the stuntman nonchalantly revealed Echo‘s close call.
“Echo isn’t out yet but I’ve heard it is just as bad,” said Brewster. “I’d heard they were going to Batgirl it because they weren’t happy with it, and now they’re doing reshoots and they’re planning on airing it, but I think that could also do with the fact that there’s a strike, and there’s not a lot of content right now, so they’re like ‘Well, we have it made already’.”
Echo (Alaqua Cox) puts an end to Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) in Hawkeye Season 1 Episode 6 “So This Is Christmas?” (2021), Marvel Entertainment
Notably, this is not the first time questions regarding Echo‘s quality have been raised.
On the May 18th episode of his and critic John Rocha’s The Hot Mic podcast, noted film scooper and reporter Jeff Sneider told his co-host, “I’d heard the show was kind of plagued by issues throughout production really. I’d heard that it was a mess. That the show came in they basically had to reshoot the entire thing.”
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“I’m told that they originally shot eight episodes and Kevin [Feige] thought it was unreleasable,” he continued. “So they talked about cutting it down to four episodes or six in post. Then they ended up reshooting it.”
“My source did not actually know how many episodes they wound up with, but apparently it needed like a top-down rejiggering and Kevin was not happy with it,” Sneider concluded. “So when they announced that all the episodes would be going out day and date, it was like ‘Huh?’ Like you said, I think you need to read between the lines on that one, and it sounds like something of a lost cause.”
Maya Lopez, under the mistaken belief that Daredevil killed her father, makes her costumed debut as Echo in Daredevil Vol. 2 #11 “Dinner and a Movie” (2000), Marvel Comics. Words by David Mack, art by Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti, Richard Isanove, and Richard Starkings.
After having its release date removed from scheduling just a few months before its slated release window, Echo’s full episode count – in a first for Marvel – will be released all together on November 29th, 2023.
NEXT: Samuel L. Jackson-Led ‘Secret Invasion’ Posts Second Worst Opening Of Any Marvel Disney Plus Series
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