Highly Anticipated Marvel Series Suffer Delays at Disney+

Summary

Echo, the Marvel Cinematic Universe spin-off, will not debut on Disney+ until early 2024 due to the new streaming paradigm.
The shift in Disney's streaming strategy has led to delays and spacing out of releases for MCU projects, affecting several planned releases in 2023.
The delays are a result of strikes and the inability to properly market projects, which may lead to some cuts to the planned MCU content and a potential soft reboot of the franchise.

Recent developments relating to strike action and the shift in the streamer paradigm have led to big changes for several projects headed to Disney+, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe spin-off Echo and many more.

Based on the character of the same name from the pages of Marvel Comics, Echo first entered the MCU as a character in the Disney+ series Hawkeye, where she was initially an antagonist hunting Clint Barton’s alter ego Ronin to avenge her father’s death, eventually discovering that her surrogate father figure The Kingpin was behind it all along. The character was pretty well received, which was apparently a given as a Hawkeye spinoff focused on the Echo character was already in the works at Disney ahead of the first series’ release.

Despite reports indicating that the Marvel show was still set to release for streaming on Disney+ in spite of signs to the contrary, it has now been confirmed by Deadline that Echo won’t be debuting in 2023 after all. The change, which will see the spin-off series premiere on the streaming service early in 2024, is one of the first effects of the new paradigm toward streaming that Disney decided on earlier in the year. With a renewed focus on internally controlled IP and the jettisoning of a few prominent titles from outside IPs, the streamer now finds itself having to space out releases more, leaving the company to nix the remaining 2023 releases for the MCU effectively.

This is not Echo’s first brush with delays, as the now-defunct 2023 release date for the Marvel project came after delays shifted it from an earlier planned release window. This time, it's in good company, as every MCU project other than the second season of Loki has also suffered the same fate. The other subjects to the change include the highly anticipated Disney+ Daredevil: Born Again, which suffered production halts due to the ongoing strikes and has now been taken off the release schedule indefinitely. The reboot of the 90’s animated X-Men series dubbed X-Men ‘97 and the Wandavision spin-off led by Katheryn Hahn have also been affected by the delays.

With the strikes and the inability to properly market projects via their stars’ endorsements that come with them, the already radical shift in Disney’s streaming stratagem seems to have been ramped up further, and some cuts might even end up being made to the planned MCU content. However, Echo seems to be the worst choice available to Disney in terms of projects to let simmer. The importance of the Echo series’ debut on Disney+ to certain subsets of the fanbase should also be obvious by now, as Marvel was even officially recognized for its authentic depiction of disability in Hawkeye for the inclusion of the character.

The radical shift in streaming models, coupled with the downturn in the MCU’s popularity, lends credence to the idea that the MCU might be headed for a soft reboot, DCU style. If plans for such a bold move do come up, the fate of the franchise’s Disney+ shows might be in an even more precarious position. How things will look for the MCU after Disney’s new strategy fully manifests can only be guessed at this time.

Marvel’s Echo is now slated for a January 2024 premiere on Disney+.