Can a prosthetic-legged, deaf Native American superhero revitalize Disney’s Marvel franchise, only weeks after the company’s CEO seemed to be criticizing his filmmakers for putting message before narrative?
The story of Maya Lopez, a fierce former villain who returns to her Oklahoma birthplace to find her Indigenous origins after a life of crime in New York, is told in the streaming series “Echo,” which premieres on Disney+ and Hulu on Tuesday.
Filmmakers collaborated closely with Choctaw Nation officials to create realistic scenes, such as a flashback to an athletic festival in America before to European contact. The majority of the conversation is spoken mostly in sign language with subtitles.
“I’m just so proud to be able to represent a platform that is uplifting voices for Indigenous people… we’re doing it the right way,” star Alaqua Cox — who is herself deaf, Indigenous and an amputee — told a recent press conference.
However, Disney is in a vulnerable position with the series, as their Marvel superhero movies have recently underperformed at the box office following more than ten years of dominance worldwide.
For the first time since 2016, Universal overtook Disney as Hollywood’s highest-grossing studio last year.
Concurrently, the corporation has become embroiled in the US cultural wars, under fire from Republican politicians and right-wing pundits for being “too woke” in its narrative.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a presidential hopeful, has pounced upon complaints about the increasing prevalence of gay and nonbinary characters in Disney films, from “Lightyear” to “Elemental.”
At a conference talk in November, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the company’s storytellers had become overly concerned about introducing “positive messages,” and had “lost sight of what their number one objective needed to be.”
“What I’ve really tried to do is to return to our roots, which is remember we have to entertain first. It’s not about messages,” said Iger.
