Hawkeye star Alaqua Cox shares a casting call announcement for her own Echo spinoff series, calling for two new actresses familiar with ASL.
Alaqua Cox, who is set to make her MCU debut in the upcoming Hawkeye series, recently shared casting call details for her own Echo spinoff series. Serving as Cox’s acting debut, the Hawkeye series follows on from the events of Avengers: Endgame and will feature Jeremy Renner’s return to the role of his Avengers archer Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye. Joining Cox and Renner is Bumblebee’s Hailee Steinfeld, who is set to play Barton’s new protégé Kate Bishop, and Black Widow’s Florence Pugh will reprise her role as Natasha Romanoff’s younger sister Yelena Belova.
Cox’s character, Maya Lopez AKA Echo, is a hearing impaired Native American who first appeared in the Daredevil comics back in the late ’90s. An Olympic-level athlete, Echo possesses photographic reflexes which allow her to mimic other people’s movements. In the original comics, Echo was raised by Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin, the same character portrayed by Vincent D’Onofrio in the Netflix Daredevil series. When she was a young girl, Lopez’s father was murdered by Fisk but begged him to raise his daughter as a dying wish.
In March, it was revealed that Marvel Studios were in the early stages of giving Cox’s character her own Echo spinoff series. Now, Cox herself has confirmed those reports by sharing details of a casting call for the new show on her Instagram stories. Looking to fill two new roles, “Jessica” and “Iris,” the casting call is looking for actors fluent in American sign language. Both roles are also noted as being deaf and Native American or Latinx in origin. Check out a screenshot of Cox’s post below:
Hearing impairments have long been a part of Hawkeye’s own mythology in the comics, with Clint being portrayed as deaf since the 80s. In the MCU’s previous entries, this facet of his character was overlooked, but set photos previously showed Renner’s Hawkeye wearing a hearing aid. Going one step further, Marvel’s inclusion of Echo in this series, and the provision of her own spinoff, seems to indicate the MCU is set on fully embracing diverse narratives and characters as it moves forward.
Cox will not be the first deaf superhero in the MCU however, as that honor is set to go to The Walking Dead’s Lauren Ridloff, who plays Makkari in the upcoming Eternals movie. Recently the two stars even joined for an epic behind-the-scenes shot celebrating their respective characters’ inclusion in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With casting just getting underway, it will be some time until audiences will get to see the new Echo series, but Cox’s MCU debut in Hawkeye is slated for a November 24 premiere.
Source: Alaqua Cox