Echo EPs Explain Maya’s Different Powers and the ‘Native Inventiveness’ of Her New Leg Prosthetic

The following contains MJAOR spoilers from all five episodes of Echo. Proceed accordingly.

Marvel fans who’ve watched all five episodes of Echo — which are now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu — understand that Maya Lopez’s (played by Alaqua Cox) powers are different.

In the comics, Maya got the Echo moniker because of her ability to perfectly replicate a person’s moves. But the live-action show did away with that and instead, opted for Maya to draw strength from her Choctaw ancestors.

We saw that in Episode 2 when she used her glowing hands — after seeing a vision of Chafa, the first Choctaw — to free her prosthetic leg from being jammed between two train cars. In the finale, she again tapped into that spiritual connection to her forbearers to try and convince Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) to let go of the pain from his past, which he refused to do.

Executive producer Richie Palmer notes that yes, her powers are different from the comics, but they wanted to “ground it in real-world mysticism.”

“It’s not Doctor Strange magic that’s happening,” Palmer tells TVLine. “It’s grounded in real spiritualism and real connection to your ancestors that some of us are lucky to have in real life, too. It’s a real connection to her people that is actually her superpower at the end of the day.”

Brad Winderbaum, who also executive-produces the gritty Marvel Spotlight show, calls Maya’s abilities “heightened Marvel storytelling at times.” But it’s really about the “metaphor of connection with one’s heritage and how she, in her journey, learns to embrace her family and all the people that came before. People whose names we’ve forgotten, they still echo through time and impact her life in our world today.”

The train incident in Episode 2 left Maya’s prosthetic too damaged to be used again, so she received a neat upgrade from her grandfather Skully (Graham Greene) in Episode 3. The new leg came with special designs that affirmed Maya as a real Choctaw warrior as well as some other cool features.

Maya portrayer Alaqua Cox shares, “We had three or four different prosthetic legs in the series that we used. That one was my favorite because it had a knife inside and hidden things in the compartments that you could pull out and utilize and kill people with.”

Navajo filmmaker Sydney Freeland, who directed and executive-produced all five episodes, heralds Maya’s upgraded prosthetic as a symbol of native inventiveness.

“One of the big things in the story was this idea of native ingenuity. Back home, a lot of times you don’t have a ton of money or resources, so you have to be particularly inventive in how you approach scenarios or situations,” she explains. “We try to incorporate that native inventiveness into the character and situations, and her leg as well.”