She is Native American, deaf and has a leg amputated: the new Marvel superhero is banking on her atypical profile to relaunch a franchise in decline at Disney, at the very moment when her boss seems to want to extricate himself from the front of the culture wars American.
The series Echo, which debuted Tuesday, January 9 on the Disney and Hulu streaming platforms, follows the adventures of Maya Lopez, an ex-criminal from New York who rediscovers her Native American roots in her hometown of Oklahoma. A pitch which falls at a delicate moment, both for the Marvel universe and for its owner, Disney. The general public is showing a certain weariness towards the superhero franchise, whose audience figures are eroding, while the big-eared firm has become a punching bag for the American right, particularly during campaign periods. presidential.
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Like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a contender for the White House, Republicans are suing him for “wokism” because of his homosexual or non-binary characters, like in Buzz Lightyear or Elementary. Disney has also just lost its title as the studio with the highest turnover in Hollywood, overtaken last year by Universal. A first since 2016.
In November, Disney boss Bob Iger appeared to suggest that his creative teams begin a shift. Rather than favoring symbols and “positive messages”, he hammered home his desire to “return to our roots, that is to say, remember that we must first entertain”.
With its numerous dialogues in sign language, subtitled, and its development in collaboration with the Chacta people, Echo nevertheless claims its inclusiveness. The creators particularly wanted to ensure the authenticity of a sports gathering scene, located in America before European settlers. “I am so proud to be able (…) to make the voices of indigenous people heard,” said the star of the series, Alaqua Cox, during a recent press conference.
The series marks the advent of a trend within the Marvel universe. If the franchise of superheroes taken from American “comic books” began in the cinema in 2008 with Iron Man, it was not until Black Panther, the 18th film, to show the adventures of a protagonist other than white. Since then, the universe has considerably diversified its characters, while at the same time, box office revenues have declined. But there’s no indication the two phenomena are linked, according to Bethany Lacina, who has studied the franchise’s audience demographics.
“Non-white people are more likely to watch Marvel movies than white people. Particularly African-Americans and Latinos,” explains this assistant professor at the University of Rochester. The greater inclusiveness of Disney casting “brings their films closer to what their audience has always been about,” she notes, especially as young Americans are increasingly diverse.
For the academic, Mr. Iger’s recent speech perhaps reflects a “frustration” that Disney’s on-screen diversity efforts have not attracted a flood of viewers from new backgrounds. But the inclusiveness advocated by Marvel has not provoked any “backlash” from white spectators, she believes. They also rushed to Black Panther, a film with a predominantly African-American cast, nominated for an Oscar and always praised by the boss of Disney for its “positive impact on the world”.
According to Nick Carnes, co-author of a book on the Marvel universe, the diversification of the franchise’s superheroes stems both from a commercial strategy and from the history of the comics from which the films are inspired. “If we look at historical heroes, the oldest figures who arouse the nostalgia of entire generations, we see that they are, disproportionately, white and male,” observes this professor at Duke University.
From this perspective, Disney’s plan is to “take people who love the story of Iron Man or Spider-Man and expose them to different characters” to expand its audience. More than the cultural divisions fracturing the United States, the success or failure of Echo will depend on the quality of its storytelling, he believes. “At the end of the day, we are all human beings,” recalled Chaske Spencer, a Native American actor who plays one of the supporting roles in the series. “It’s all about emotion, which we can all feel.”
