Marvel's Echo: Unraveling the Confusing Timeline of the MCU

Introduction

Marvel Studios may have advanced and confused the timeline of the MCU even further with the release of Phase 5's Echo. The five-part Disney+ series released in its entirety on January 9, 2024, marking the return of Alaqua Cox's Maya Lopez to the MCU following her debut in 2021's Hawkeye. Echo not only featured Cox's deaf superhero, but also developed a major MCU villain in the form of Vincent D'Onofrio's Wilson Fisk, a.k.a. Kingpin, setting up some huge and world-changing twists for the MCU's future street-level stories. While Echo does a good job of setting up Marvel Studios' future, however, its own place in the MCU's timeline is more confusing.

Maya Lopez on her motorcycle in Echo

Exploring Maya Lopez's Backstory

Marvel Studios' Echo series explored Maya Lopez's backstory and ancestry in beautiful detail. The series opened by revealing Maya's mother's death, and her and her father's 2007 relocation to New York City when Maya was seven-years-old. This took Maya away from her hometown of Tamaha, Oklahoma, and her indigenous family, including grandmother Chula, grandfather Skully, and cousins Biscuits and Bonnie. Maya returned to Tamaha during Echo after making an attempt on Kingpin's life in the final moments of Hawkeye, and while this would lead to her discovering some impressive new abilities, comments made following her return to the Native American town may have muddied the waters of the MCU's timeline.

Maya Lopez in her leather jacket in Echo

Timeline Confusion and Clarification

There may be confusion about when Echo is set in the MCU's timeline, as Maya Lopez was said to have returned to Tamaha after 20 years, which implies the series is set in 2027, as Maya and her father moved to New York in 2007. This would push the MCU's timeline further forward, but simply isn't the case. In fact, Echo takes place five months after Hawkeye, meaning the storyline unfolds around May 2025, as Hawkeye was an honest-to-goodness Christmas story set at the end of 2024. In the MCU's timeline on Disney+, Echo sits between Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, setting it firmly in 2025.

Maya Lopez working for Kingpin in Echo

Following the five-year time-jump in 2019's Avengers: Endgame, the MCU's timeline became much harder to follow. Prior to Endgame, projects tended to be set in the years of their release, but this was no longer the case once the MCU began exploring 2023 back in 2019. This means that the Multiverse Saga's installments have all been set in 2024 or 2025, meaning audiences are still playing catch-up to the running timeline of the MCU. This meant that Echo's official place in the timeline wasn't initially clear, and this was confused even further by Maya Lopez's family suggesting she hadn't been back to Tamaha in two decades. Marvel Studios must be aware that audiences have been struggling to keep up with the MCU's timeline, so should perhaps make it clearer exactly when projects are taking place, rather than having characters - specifically those in Echo - confuse the timeline even further.

Maya Lopez discovering her power in Echo