Echo exists in a pocket universe of the Marvel Cinematic Universe known as Marvel Spotlight, a new collection of darker, grittier, “street-level” stories. But while Echo may be the first official addition, it’ll quickly be followed by a reboot of the series that inspired the “street-level” superhero stories to begin with: Daredevil.
Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) made a quick appearance in Echo’s first episode, along with some other familiar faces. Here’s everything you need to know about Echo’s cameos, from why they appear to how they could affect the MCU’s future.
Spoilers ahead for Echo.
Daredevil’s Brief Appearance
Echo opens with an epic warehouse fight as Maya (Alaqua Cox) starts to do jobs for Kingpin. But as she fights her way through the enemies, she suddenly comes face to face with Daredevil himself — thankfully no longer in the red-and-gold suit we saw in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.
As the two fight, Matt expresses his disappointment that Maya and Kingpin’s goons stormed the place he’s been casing, but the two don’t fight for that long. And just as quickly as he shows up, he disappears.
His appearance in Echo isn’t integral to Maya’s story, but it provides the setup for Matt’s continuing story in the upcoming series Daredevil: Born Again. The series will follow Matt Murdock as he faces off against his archnemesis Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio, reprising his role yet again). Details are otherwise light on Born Again, but Echo establishes that Daredevil is always on Kingpin’s tail, even if he steps back to allow Maya’s story to take the spotlight.
Hawkeye’s Cameo, Explained
He’s not the only other headlining hero to appear in Echo. We see Maya live out the demise of her father all over again as she comes face to face with her old enemy Ronin — aka Hawkeye. After Jeremy Renner’s serious accident, it’s unlikely he would return to film new scenes, so this appearance is recycled footage from Hawkeye, which introduced Maya to the MCU back in 2021.
While Echo may be a standalone project and the cameos are limited to the first episode, they’re still needed to cement its place in the greater MCU. Hawkeye is in the past, Daredevil: Born Again is in the future, but Echo is now officially the cutting edge of Marvel’s present.
