Marvel‘s Echo is being sold as a standalone series on Disney+ under the brand-new Marvel Spotlight banner. Despite Marvel’s insistence that you don’t need to watch anything else, this is very clearly part of a continuing story, spinning off from Hawkeye and incorporating scenes from Netflix’s Daredevil. So given that this is a typical Marvel project, does Echo have an end credits scene?
The short answer is yes, there is indeed a post-credits scene on the fifth and final episode of Echo, titled “Maya.” And not only that, it potentially sets up the events of Daredevil Season 4, aka Daredevil: Born Again. If Marvel decides to do that show, of course.
With that in mind, let’s get into it. What happens in the Echo end credits scene? And how does it tie into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)?
Does Echo Have An End Credits Scene?
Sure does! I answered that question not two paragraphs earlier. Unlike other Marvel series, the main credits of the episode (aka the animated ones) are broadcast in the normal place, after the cold open. So here you need to watch a few of the main, white-on-black credits for the series; and about halfway through, a scene pops up. What is that scene? Read on, true believers.
Marvel’s Echo Mid-Credits Scene Explained:
At the end of Echo, Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) has been beaten by Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) when she opens his heart to some of the deep-seated trauma he suffered at the hands of his abusive father. You can find out more about that in our Echo ending explained, but the point here is that he’s booking it back to New York on his private plane, after his brief stint in Oklahoma.
On the plane, he’s instructing a flunky that they need to set up a meeting with “all the remaining heads” to “stabilize the situation.” What he means is to get the heads of crime in New York together to consolidate his control, after Maya blew up his warehouse back in Echo Episode 2.
That’s when he spots New York’s own Pat Kiernan talking to a fellow reporter Errol Louis on Spectrum News about the New York Mayoral race. According to the talking heads, the race for Mayor is wide open, with most voters interested in somebody who is “a fighter.” Kiernan offers that would work “against career politicians,” and there “are legitimate problems in the city right now, and the voters want somebody who understands the pain they’re going through.”
Fisk, interestingly, has just been forced to confront his own pain thanks to Maya’s mystical Echo powers. Weird coincidence! Says Louis, “A bare-knuckle brawler would do well in this race. An outsider, somebody who is not afraid to take on the establishment.”
As they continue to discuss whether such a candidate could be out there, Kingpin leans in, the music swells, and we’re left with a feeling that maybe Wilson Fisk would be a better option than the Mayor we have in New York right now. I’m just saying!
What That Echo Post-Credits Scene Means For Daredevil Season 4:
So this scene is teeing up Echo Season 2, right? Probably not. If anything, this is setting up what could be the events of Daredevil: Born Again, aka Daredevil Season 4. And in fact, this seems to be setting up the “Mayor Fisk” storyline that kicked off in 2017’s Daredevil #595 from Marvel Comics, written by Charles Soule with art by Stefano Landini.
What’s perhaps most interesting about this storyline is that it not-so-subtly paralleled the rise of Donald Trump to the Presidency a year earlier; except with a long-standing supervillain/criminal eventually getting elected Mayor of New York, instead of President. Fisk remained Mayor — and a thorn in the side of various NYC-based superheroes — right up until the “Devil’s Reign” storyline that ran in 2021-2022, where Luke Cage supplanted Fisk as Mayor.
So will Marvel Studios release a Daredevil show that also goes directly parallel to Donald Trump’s rise to power in 2024, or more likely 2025? Particularly given this year is a fractious election year?
Ummm… Maybe? It’s actually an open question whether Daredevil: Born Again will follow up on any plotlines at all. While the 18-episode show was reportedly about half-filmed, after being paused for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Marvel and Disney reassessed the series and found the quality lacking. It’s currently unclear how much of what was previously filmed will be used, but the initial approach to the material was reportedly scrapped, the showrunners switched, and it sounds like from all reports that they’ll use some of the footage, but essentially start over with the series.
Point being, while it’s pretty clear the initial vision for the show would have roughly followed “Mayor Fisk” and perhaps even “Devil’s Reign,” now it is very much TBD.
