With Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again wrapping up production, one fuzzy unknown is the future of another character in the street-level saga’s orbit: Echo. Alaqua Cox tells Polygon she is in the dark, too; unlike some of her peers who got their start on Disney Plus shows, Marvel hasn’t mentioned to the 27-year-old actor when or if Maya Lopez will reappear in the MCU.
“I haven’t heard anything yet!” Cox said through a sign language interpreter during a recent press day for Echo. “I’m waiting for them to call me. I’m saying, ‘Come on. Let’s bring it on!’ I hope I’ll be involved in more MCU projects — that would just be amazing.”
Introduced in Hawkeye and given her own eponymous spinoff this January, the introduction of Kingpin’s surrogate daughter was a launchpad for a new face not just in the MCU but in a Hollywood lacking in Indigenous icons. When Cox landed the role of Echo, the actor, who is of the Menominee and Mohican nations, became the first hard-of-hearing and Indigenous screen superhero.
“That was my first acting role ever,” Cox said, still in minor disbelief that it all went her way. She had dreamed of acting from a young age, watching the Oscar-nominated (and future Echo co-star) Graham Greene pave the way in Hollywood for Indigenous actors, and in looking back she still isn’t sure why she was the one who got the nod from Marvel Studios. Then the company went the extra mile: Since Cox uses a prosthetic in place of her amputated right leg, Maya was written as an amputee, in a break from comics canon. But once she got over her surprise, Cox threw every ounce of herself into the physically demanding stunts.
“Those were my favorite parts of the whole filming experience,” Cox said. “I love doing all the physical activity and work. I grew up playing different kinds of sports. I have an older brother; we used to wrestle all the time, so we’re very close. So yes, the stunts were definitely my favorite and I really like to face those challenges as well.”
Looking back, Maya’s big fight during a speeding train heist stands out as the pinnacle of her time in the MCU thus far. The sequence required long stretches of overnight shoots, and the demand of the choreography was more about staying centered than surviving combat or stage falls.
“I was not a big fan of coffee before filming Echo,” she says. “I’m a coffeeholic now.”
Cox would suit back up as Echo if the story demanded it, but she says she’s also ready for the next role, whatever it may be.
“I like traveling. I like playing different characters. I don’t of course want to take the bad guy character all the time. I’d like to have other roles, but I want to try something new like a horror or comedy — something other than a bad guy character!”
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