The MCU"s First 2024 Release Reviews Are Massive For Daredevil"s Return
Summary
- Early reviews of Echo praise its grounded and gritty feel, with a focus on personal and street-level storytelling.
- Echo's TV-MA rating allows for more violent and dark tones, setting it apart from other MCU projects.
- The series sets the perfect tone for Daredevil: Born Again, as the upcoming 18-part series can continue the darker tones of Daredevil and Kingpin from Echo.
Early reviews for the first of Marvel Studios' 2024 Disney+ shows spell good news for the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again series. After debuting as Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil, in Marvel Television's Daredevil series on Netflix, Charlie Cox was revealed to be reprising the role in the MCU proper, alongside Vincent D'Onofrio and Jon Bernthal, who portrayed Wilson Fisk's Kingpin and Frank Castle's Punisher, respectively, on Netflix. Ahead of the release of Daredevil: Born Again, the MCU's first 18-episode season, Charlie Cox made cameo appearances in Phase 4's Spider-Man: No Way Home and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and is set to show his face one more time in 2024's Echo series.
Echo, set to premiere on Disney+ on January 10, 2024, stars Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, returning after her debut in 2021's Hawkeye. Echo's cast also features other returning characters, including Cox's Matt Murdock, D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk and Zahn McClarnon's William Lopez, Maya's father who was killed by Clint Barton's Ronin during the Blip. Consisting of five episodes, Echo is Marvel Studios' first TV-MA series, and the first to release every episode simultaneously on both Disney+ and Hulu. Echo could be ground-breaking in several ways, not only establishing a new release technique for the MCU's Disney+ shows, but also setting up the perfect tone for the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again.
Related Marvel Has Already Changed One Major Part Of Daredevil Before His Show A major change for Matt Murdock is happening following his latest appearance in Marvel's She-Hulk but before the MCU's Daredevil: Born Again. Echo's First Reactions Are The Perfect Set Up For Daredevil: Born Again Close Prior to Echo's global release, a selection of critics were gifted to a screening of the show's first two episodes in the United Kingdom in December 2023, and early reviews of the upcoming five-part series spell good news not only for Echo herself, but also for Daredevil in the MCU's future. The focus of the early reviews for Echo is on its grounded feel, its darkness, violence and attention on a personal and street-level story. Echo is set to lead directly into Marvel Studios' Daredevil: Born Again, which means these grittier textures may continue in the Charlie Cox-led series, perhaps bearing similarities to the beloved Daredevil series from Marvel Television.
Since Daredevil: Born Again was announced by Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige in 2022, there have been worries that the series would alter too much of Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock in order to fit into the otherwise-family-friendly MCU. However, following confirmation that more mature stories will be told in Echo, Deadpool 3 and Blade, and the reveal of the Marvel Spotlight banner focusing on more grounded, character-driven stories, things might be looking more hopeful for Daredevil: Born Again. Both Daredevil and Kingpin will be appearing in Echo before going head-to-head in Born Again, so the 2024 series will be a good testing ground for these darker characters in the MCU.
What Echo's First Reviews Say 
Even though Echo's early reviews have garnered some criticism, specifically aimed at the series' "storytelling and pacing," and some of its "creative decisions," the majority celebrate the upcoming Disney+ show. With its TV-MA rating, Echo is able to delve deeper into the more "grounded… gritty… hard hitting" stories, while the series has also been celebrated for experimenting with more "violent and dark" tones compared to other MCU projects.
Despite focusing on Alaqua Cox's Maya Lopez, and detailing her MCU origin story, Echo's character-driven, smaller-scale story would be perfect to emulate in Daredevil: Born Again, retaining some of the MCU's new darker tones.