RICHIE PALMER: Echo is a character we've been excited about
for a long time in Marvel Studios.
It just felt like the right time to introduce a new corner of the universe.
STEPHEN BROUSSARD: In the comics,
this character was first introduced in the world of Daredevil,
dealing with Matt Murdock and with Kingpin,
and that kind of street-level crime.
Much more gritty, urban, as opposed to outer space or Asgard.
That's kind of the space she had occupied in the comics.
It's the space we meet her in in the Hawkeye series.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
From there, there was so much we could do with the character.
There was so much potential, many new characters we could introduce.
SYDNEY FREELAND: On Echo,
one of the things that was important to me was authenticity, you know,
and creating and trying to tell the story from an authentic standpoint.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
What we wanted to do from the beginning
is show a world that people may not be familiar with.
But then open up our arms and say, "Hey, we're actually not that different."
We tried to do as much in-camera as possible.
We wanted it to feel like the most grounded thing in the MCU.
You get introduced to this Native American world.
Extremely emotional.
FREELAND: In Hawkeye, Maya Lopez is a villain.
And that was super exciting to me 'cause it wasn't about, like,
we weren't trying to turn her into Captain America.
We weren't trying to turn her into this noble person.
Awesome. (CHUCKLES)
FREELAND: It was like, "Let's embrace those flaws"
and it really created, like, a full, complicated,
complex narrative and character that we could build our series on.
BROUSSARD: It's just a really fascinating character that
flees the events of Hawkeye and goes back home.
So it's very much like a prodigal daughter story,
and it's about her going back home and figuring out who she is.
Is she a criminal mastermind?
Is she going to stay on this path of being on the wrong side of the law?
Or is she going to reconnect with a family and a community and a culture?
It's a unique synthesis,
and so we've sort of put the entire point of view of the series
in the hands of this incredible actress named Alaqua Cox.
Alaqua is such a presence as Maya Lopez
that when she showed up on Hawkeye,
it was the first thing she's ever done, and she commanded the screen.
Her presence really just drew you in on that show.
This character, Maya Lopez,
she's a more obscure character in the comics that is deaf
and a young Native American woman.
With the Hawkeye series, we wanted to make sure
that we were looking into the deaf community to find that actress.
And we're looking to the Native American culture
to make sure that we can get a deaf Native American actress.
Now, when you put both of them together that way,
it's a massive undertaking
to be able to find the perfect person to play Maya Lopez.
We pored through so many tapes
and Alaqua, who came from Wisconsin, who is Native American, who's deaf,
was just the perfect person to play this character.
TRAN: She was Maya Lopez.
FISK: Here she is.
VINCENT D'ONOFRIO: Alaqua's amazing. She's like a natural.
She handles this emotional stuff really well
and has this kind of very calm but intense quality about her.
You know, her body is calm, her aura is calm.
But it's intense.
Maybe I rip out your throat. Hmm?
(DOOR OPENS)
Or maybe she will.
HAWKEYE: Hey.
KATE: Okay. You wanna be good cop or bad cop?
-HAWKEYE: What? -Good cop or bad cop?
You rely too much on technology apparently.
(LIVELY CHATTER)
DIRECTOR: Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for a wonderful day.
Big day. Thank you for everybody.
Great job.
(ALAQUA SIGNING)
(BOTH GRUNTING)
DIRECTOR: Okay, cut.
It's a long, grueling experience to take the lead,
the number-one on a Marvel show,
in which we're going to further tell her story and make her a superhero.
That is challenging for even the most experienced actor.
So, we knew that we had to put in place a support system
that would best service her and bring the best out of her,
and really, all of our cast.
CHASKE SPENCER: Zane took the bodies.
Look.
Tonight,
things caught up to us both.
Oh, yeah.
(CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
-Okay, cool. All right. Thank you. -Okay.
CHASKE: With ASL, at first, I was terrified.
I wanted to look like I know what I'm doing, but it's been work.
I've lost sleep because I was so nervous about scenes.
I'm not even joking.
Trying to get your mouth and hands to move at the same time,
I've learned that I talk faster than I move my hands.
So for me, it's to take it down a notch and also make it believable
and also have the emotions going when we're acting.
I gotta say Alaqua has been amazing at that.
and you didn't see her,
you will break her heart.
(CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
CATRIONA McKENZIE: When it comes to ASL, it's very kinetic.
All expressed through face and hands, and I love that.
It was like poetry.
FREELAND: In being able to study ASL and take lessons,
one of the things that became apparent is that the hands are an extension
of one's emotion and one's expression.
Anyone from the deaf community or ASL community can completely override me.
It's not my lived experience, but the, um...
My interpretation was that it's like the hands are the text
and the face is the subtext, right?
So you really need those two things together
to be able to get an idea of what a person's feeling.
We built our entire visual language with that in mind.
So, for example, a close-up on our show is this.
Specifically so we can see Maya's face but we can also see her hands sign.
So, across the board, our visual language
is trying to cater to this way of existing in the world.
PALMER: Authenticity is key.
We weren't doing anything inauthentic. It was really amazing.
We couldn't have done any of that without the Choctaw Nation.
FREELAND: Welcome, everyone, to day one of the production.
For those of you who don't know,
myself personally, I am Navajo from the Navajo Reservation, New Mexico,
and I grew up with this idea of
whenever you're starting or ending something,
just acknowledging the people and the place where you're at,
and in this case, we are portraying the Choctaw people.
And we have a delegation from the Choctaw Nation
who has come out to do a blessing for our production,
to tell the best story that we can tell.
Thank you for this opportunity that you've had.
Seth will lead you in a Choctaw walk dance.
What you do is just line up behind him.
(MAN CHANTING)
In the beginning of this chant, you will hear,
"I'm starting to go. I'm getting ready to go."
(MAN CONTINUES CHANTING)
Towards the mid of the chant, you'll hear, "I am going."
(MAN CONTINUES CHANTING)
And at the end of the chant, you'll hear, "I have arrived."
(MAN CONTINUES CHANTING)
So this morning, we thank you that you're participating with us
in this traditional walk dance that usually commemorates
the beginning or the end of an event that is meaningful.
CHRISTINA D. KING: In working with a writers' room
that was full of wonderful Indigenous talent,
-some of them were Choctaw. -(SPEAKS CHOCTAW)
KING: So, we reached out to the Choctaw Nation,
told them about what we were doing,
and started having informal creative meetings together.
When we went in, one of the things that's very important for me was to say, like,
"Hey, guys, we're not coming in to tell you what we're going to do.
"We're coming in with the outline of a story,
"and we want to create a dialogue.
"We want your input on this culture and we want your input
"on how we portray this character.
"So we can hopefully do it in a more authentic manner."
And so I think, initially, they were kind of taken aback, too.
The Choctaws were like, "What is this? What's your agenda?"
And we basically kind of said,
well, our agenda is we want to tell the best possible story.
(CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
McKENZIE: In the history of telling Indigenous stories,
if the stories have been originated outside of the community,
then there's always a different perspective.
That's one of the things about this series that was so exciting
is it's coming from within the community.
When approached with this role, getting the chance to read the scripts,
it made total sense that Echo would revolve so much around community
because, as Indigenous people, a huge reason why we've been so resilient
is because we've leaned on each other and leaned on that sense of community,
and that's exactly what we're doing in the world of Echo.
Hey, hey.
Are you okay?
Like, she's not a Captain Rogers, where it's this one person
and he is the person who can save everybody.
It's her leaning on her family and reconnecting with who she is.
So for me, that was something that really was a marker of,
"Oh, we're telling a Native superhero story."
The partnership with the Choctaw, they were integral in helping us prepare,
in helping us shoot the show as we go here,
advising us all along the way, in every respect.
For our community and artists, that's a real Choctaw item.
TAMEZ: I love that. Love that.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Does my hand need to stay down?
-No. -Okay, so I'll just do that.
-Is that okay? -Yeah.
(GRUNTING IN FRUSTRATION)
Kapucha was a prime example of the positive consequences
of working with Choctaw Nation.
Everything from, like, the costumes of the stickball players,
to the type of sticks the stickball players were using,
and then that led to more conversations of, "Okay, they're playing the Cherokees."
So the Cherokees have their own type of sticks, their own type of costume,
their own type of hair, own type of makeup.
And we're able to build something
that is very, um, culturally specific and feels lived in.
(ALL GRUNTING)
The ishtaboli set is so exciting.
It was just breathtaking to be a part of. You really felt like you were in there
in the middle of a real stickball game in 1099 A.D.
This wasn't just 100 background extras that we got (CHUCKLES) in Atlanta.
These were real stickball players from all over the country,
and for the real stickball players to remark on how authentic everything was,
it's just, you know, that's the sweet stuff, man.
(ALL CHEERING)
We're standing at the periphery of our stickball court
which is the centerpiece of our traditional pre-Columbian
Native American village that we've created.
There's no, you know, hard and fast documentation
of what this village would have looked like a thousand years ago.
So all of this based on the handed-down oral traditions.
We've flanked it with these, what... We call them long houses or team houses.
Likely would have been cypress trees that they stripped down
and used as a sort of primary wooden element of the structure,
uh, covered with a sort of mud-based plaster.
And then, the roof, obviously, is a sort of thatching.
Basically, we were able to get as close
as we possibly could to what it would have been.
(WHOOPING)
CODY LIGHTNING: To have our ancestors' ceremonies incorporated
and to have it be portrayed in a good way
is so refreshing to see.
And also to actually have this many Indigenous people
involved in the project is amazing.
A big thing in the film and television industry
is non-Indigenous people playing Indigenous people
when, you know, we were really struggling for years to find work.
So, to have a project this big to fill all those slots with our people,
it's beautiful. It's been a long time coming.
(WIND CHIMES CLINKING)
(GASPS)
PALMER: Kingpin is one of our favorite characters
and Vincent D'Onofrio, he's such a nice guy.
He's nothing like the character that he portrays,
and it's so much fun to watch him transform into that guy,
because he is as bad as they come.
And when Vincent walks onto set, it is like Kingpin walked in the room.
FREELAND: Vincent knows this character better than any of us ever will.
He's got such a deep understanding of who Kingpin is.
I... I offered you everything.
Everything I built.
My legacy.
You threw it in my face.
Early on, I'm allowed into the meetings when it comes to the development,
and I get access to the writers and the directors
and just everybody creatively involved,
and that's a great thing to experience.
But she's there and I want to look at her
-because that's what you do. -Okay.
But they need to be able to see each other.
Vincent brings a humanity to this character.
(CHUCKLES)
The bad guy always thinks they're doing the right thing.
Like, you can see that with Vincent's performance,
his interpretation of Kingpin.
Like, you can see why Vincent would go and beat up an ice cream vendor,
why Vincent would do the things he does.
It was so crystal clear.
I can't remember a time
when I haven't loved you like a daughter.
It's this unhealthy father-daughter dynamic,
but it's also so interesting and I can't look away.
And part of you wants them to kind of succeed, you know.
And there you were,
as broken as I was.
I just wanted to wrap you up and protect you from the pain.
FREELAND: He loves Maya.
You know, that was always something that from our first rehearsal I mentioned,
is that, "Listen, no matter what happens, Kingpin loves Maya,
"and Maya loves Kingpin."
I was there. I was there for you!
Not your so-called "family."
The difference being that Kingpin may not have the tools
to be able to express that in a positive way.
Free yourself.
Free me!
Doesn't mean he doesn't care for her.
And the same way Maya has been through a ton of traumatic events,
that doesn't change the fact that
she has a true love and affinity and care for her uncle.
And those are the things that you really need to lean into
to make it, you know, human.
If you feel half of what I felt for him,
then I've become what I hate.
Vincent and Alaqua, their dynamic
really helps us on-screen as well because they could not really be
more polar opposites,
from their background to their acting experience, everything like that.
But they're both so authentic
and have put so much time and attention
into their characters in the show and their work.
There's almost a playfulness between the two of them
that I think is really helpful when you look at Maya and Kingpin
because it is that cat-and-mouse chase
where you never know who's going to maybe come out on top after an interaction.
What happened to the Lafite?
And, in many ways, they can both keep each other on their toes,
which is very true to those characters.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
-Can we run lines? -DIRECTOR: Yeah.
Let's do a rehearsal. Here we go. While we're doing the lights.
Quiet, everybody. Hold the work.
They're working quietly.
The big dialogue scenes that I've done with Alaqua,
those will stick in my memory because there's a superhero aspect to it,
but mainly it's about a father and a daughter.
To play both of those things simultaneously,
I've definitely never done that before, so it's quite unique.
DIRECTOR: Cut!
Well, that's the extent of my talent. That's it.
We knew that we really wanted for him to feel like Kingpin
and for the overall look to look very Kingpin.
And one thing that was really important that we noticed
was the collars of his shirts
are not your typical size collar of a men's dress shirt.
They're much wider, like, two inches.
And so, we knew we wanted to do that to really frame his face,
and make him look powerful.
And just the suits... The sharpness of the suits.
The most technical part of it was just making sure
that the suits looked like he was kind of bursting out of them.
You put that muscle suit on and then the clothes go on top of it.
So, the actor literally has a whole another layer on top of them.
And it was important for Kingpin to have that.
It just makes everything bigger.
Your arms bigger, your shoulders bigger.
It would give that effect of that imposing nature that Kingpin has.
Come on, let it out. (CHUCKLES)
WOMAN: I don't know what you're talking about.
(WATER DRIPPING)
Standing on the bottom step.
So, there's one more step down at the bottom, up one,
and I grabbed...
You can grab on the underside of the step to your right.
When we shot that Dawn of Time sequence, everything is happening in-camera
down to our actors, who are in full clay makeup,
going down into the puddle of water,
and coming out in the fields.
And it's so amazing to see that we got to do all of that in-camera.
MAN 1: Rolling, everybody.
-Rolling. -WOMAN: Rolling! Rolling, rolling!
MAN 2: Rolling.
Our Dawn of Time was a daunting task for a number of reasons.
MAN: Camera! And action, Julia.
TRUJILLO: Maybe the greatest of which is that, for the first time ever,
to my knowledge,
on screen, we are representing this sacred creation story.
And we didn't want to get, like, incredibly specific,
for reasons of, you know, respecting the culture.
But with the Choctaws' blessing and with their guidance,
we created something that left a little bit of room for interpretation.
It was a little bit more impressionistic.
But also, on a technical level,
it was a very challenging set.
We're fortunate enough to have an incredible sculpture department here.
So, we did all these beautiful carved columns and floor,
and there was a very elaborate water element,
where we have all of these characters emerging.
But I think we created something that we're all proud of,
and, most importantly,
something that the Choctaw people felt really comfortable with,
and felt like did a respectful job of representing,
for the first time on screen, their creation myth.
MAN: All right. Here we go. Reset.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MAN: 9th Street, Ana. Here we go. Lock it up.
The show takes place in Tamaha, Oklahoma,
and there was no better place to tell the story,
because it was real. It was authentic.
I think the overall feel of the show is very naturalistic,
and I think that shooting on location is essential to that.
(CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)
Yeah. I think it's just one word.
Yeah. Just take it off.
And I won't have her walk all the way to the door.
And freeze there.
TRUJILLO: I think true of the entire show,
all of our intentions was always that,
you know, no matter which way you turn the camera, you're in Tamaha.
We knew that the skating rink was gonna be central to quite a bit of our storylines.
We needed to find something really special.
We scoured many different skating rinks, and we landed on this one in Griffin.
And we knew right away that there was something special about it.
It had a real life to it, all this great color.
And there were all these beautiful murals surrounding the rink.
And essentially, we decided that we were going to lean into the bones
of what was there, and then to just make it our own.
Bring in all of these really fun touches
of playful Native American culture,
and add them into the murals.
One of the funny serendipitous things was, in the script,
there was a scripted mural in the skating rink
that said "Make America Skate Again,"
and, shockingly, to all of us,
that mural existed in this skating rink.
So, as soon as we saw that we were like, "This feels like where we're meant to be."
MARC SCIZAK: We got a lot of prep with her this time.
We had her in a couple months before,
knowing that these shows get impossible,
just with the work schedule.
Impossible to get the actress during the the actual shoot.
WOMAN: Instead of a big stomp that we were doing before,
we're just... Like a painful step.
SCIZAK: So, we did as much of the base work as we could.
And she really was dedicated.
She also is...
She's really tough, like, she does not like to be babied at all.
So, she really wanted to get down and dirty.
She wanted to do more.
I mean, it was us holding her back, (CHUCKLES)
saying, "Look, this is a long season, you know?
"Like, I can't have you
"hurting yourself or taking yourself out in the beginning of this."
MAN: Do me a favor?
Clockwork turn all the way around.
So we can see... This is the most important thing.
Yeah, great.
So, camera here.
So when you turn...
-Yeah. -Full body.
Gotcha. Sounds good.
One more?
SCIZAK: In designing the fights,
we wanted to add in, you know, a little bit of the jujitsu,
a little bit of the tae kwon do,
a little bit of the other martial art forms
in her, like, brutal fighting style
where she doesn't pull punches.
It's different. Yes, perfect.
SCIZAK: And when she does fight,
it's to basically make as much mayhem as possible.
(INAUDIBLE)
(GRUNTING)
(GROANS)
PALMER: It's mostly hand to hand combat.
There's cool gags with weapons that Maya does.
There's a whole fight in the skate rink where Maya is basically forced to grab
everything around her at the rink and use them as a weapon.
And we even see Maya, whether she knows it or not at the time,
she's channeling some of the specific moves
and some of the specific strategies that her ancestors channeled years ago.
SCIZAK: Can she hold the gun closer to her body?
MAN: Rolling.
SCIZAK: Good.
That looks amazing.
I know it feels weird,
but it looks good on camera.
Can we try to do that?
Catch in with this lineup for the gun.
Yes, that looks amazing.
Looks really, really good.
With Alaqua, one leg is prosthetic. So, it was a lot of fun
to do a little trial and error with that.
She can do bigger blocks with it,
where she doesn't have the pain
that somebody else might, you know, have.
(BOTH GRUNTING)
We had to have Daredevil here, because Echo, Maya Lopez,
is a character from the Daredevil comics.
How could we have an Echo show without Daredevil?
Your first time working together.
PALMER: So, we thought about the best way to do it,
and we figured, "Let's tell our own version of the comics' story
"in which Maya and Daredevil meet while Maya Lopez is on a mission
"to prove herself to Kingpin, to prove herself to the tracksuit mafia,
"that she can roll with them."
She can be just as badass as any of those guys.
And she proves it by fighting Daredevil.
The way that these characters operate is
as they are in combat with someone, they're learning about the other person,
they're learning about their training and their capabilities.
What's interesting about these two characters
is that, as they're fighting,
they are discovering that both of them have a disability.
MAN: Here we go. Ready. And action!
(BOTH GRUNTING)
SCIZAK: Daredevil's a little bit caught off-guard
by her ability to get the upper hand here.
You know, there's a gunshot that goes off right next to his ear,
which, for anybody, it would be something that causes a little bit of stress,
but for him, it's even more.
So, they basically try to use their senses against each other.
(INAUDIBLE)
(HEART BEATING)
PALMER: Sound design on this one has been amazing.
We want to convey the deaf experience to hearing audiences the best we can.
We can never fully do that, but there's moments in the show
where we drop out the sound or we'll drop out sound effects
and keep score or sometimes, frankly, we'll drop everything out.
It's quite amazing to see how it changes a scene,
and you could watch a whole scene with all the sound,
and it's really awesome.
But when you take the sound out, you feel like, "Oh, this is Maya's story.
"I get it."
We're trying to help the audience put themselves in Maya's shoes
as much as possible.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
TANTOO CARDINAL: From my character's perspective, it's a revelation for me
to see the powers, that my own daughter had,
now in my granddaughter.
And so, I created this whole warrior's outfit for her.
It was very exciting when I saw Alaqua for the first time.
It was, "Yes, yes! Here she is.
"We've been needing a superhero for a long, long time,
"and there she is."
LILLAS: We knew we really wanted to incorporate a lot of the Choctaw symbols.
One of the big things is their Choctaw diamonds
that they wear on their traditional dresses.
And we knew that we wanted to put that in multiple places.
So, that was a main focal point.
Generally, you put this strip on first, and then you put that in the middle,
and start working with it.
Like, I might work all the way down.
And then when I start over, I come back down on this side.
-MAN: Okay. Yeah. -So...
PESHAWN BREAD: When people are creating beadwork, it takes a lot of time.
When you do beadwork, you have to be in a state of good intention,
and you have to not put any negative energy into that work.
Because that's something that someone will wear.
And that's medicine. It's something that you carry with you.
It's that energy you carry with you. It's that prayer.
So, we had to work with their timeline,
and give them enough time to send us samples.
See the samples, give our notes,
send it back to them, and then have them do the next round.
But we really worked closely with the Choctaw to make sure
that they were really proud of her super suit costume.
The main thing was making sure
that they approved, (CHUCKLES) above anybody else, really.
-MAN: It's amazing. -WOMAN: This just blows me away.
All of the symbols and all the meanings of all the pieces
that go into the costumes that were being built
was much, much more so than just clothing.
It looks fabulous, but that story that it's telling
is stronger than any superhero power
that we ever get to portray on the screen.
Set's in Oklahoma.
The Choctaw Nation powwow that we've put on is pretty amazing.
People from all over are here tonight to be a part of this powwow.
It's one of the most special things done in Marvel Studios.
(LAUGHTER)
What we're gonna do is we'll just be bringing 'em in.
And then, when you guys tell us to cut,
usually the ringleader goes like this, they're all in.
We'll stomp this out.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
We started this process of putting together this powwow,
and trying to figure out the logistics of what it would take
to get everyone and everything here that we needed
to accurately represent the powwow.
And ultimately, we just determined that we should just throw a powwow.
We go out to the real performers, the real dancers,
the real singers, the real drummers, the real vendors.
In every respect, reaching out to that community,
and just asking them if they would come to Georgia,
and be a part of the first powwow in the MCU.
SHIKOBA: (ON MIC) Look at this beautiful powwow tonight,
round of applause!
-(SHIKOBA VOCABLES) -(DRUMS BEATING)
(MEN SINGING)
SHIKOBA: It's the beauty of our way on display right now!
KING: You can't fake this with actors.
The regalia that everybody wears is very specific to their tribe.
So, it's not something you can just dress from a costume house.
We had so many people come and bring their family's regalia
that's been passed down to them through generations.
One of the dancers was telling me
that she had yellow regalia, which isn't typical for her tribe,
but she had a dream about regalia, and she was telling me that in her tribe,
if you have a dream about a new regalia, you have to go make that regalia.
And that's really cool to hear those stories.
So, I'm a jingle dress dancer.
I've been dancing jingle for a long time now.
The Anishinaabe people,
they share this dress with other tribes, and they use it as a healing dress.
So, it's really important to, you know,
have prayers while dancing, and bring that healing to everything.
So that's really what it is. That's why I dance.
Right there, what you're listening to is the medicine of our people.
The beauty of this dance right here is healing our hearts, our mind, our spirits.
Let's give a round of applause for our jingle dress dancers
and their sidestep song.
(SHIKOBA VOCABLES)
It feels like a real powwow and it does help us.
It helps us as actors to, like, accept this reality
and help do our job better.
The second night, once everything got this lived-in quality,
I remember I started to relax.
I was like, "Yeah, I'm at a powwow. I'm gonna go hang out.
"I'm gonna hang out with friends. Go to the concession stand."
But then, "No, I'm on a film set. I can't relax.
"We got to get the shots and stuff." It was weird.
It was this constant push and pull of like,
"I'm gonna relax. No, I can't."
You know, (CHUCKLES) and it was...
I guess that's a testament to how well our art department team did,
and our AD team did in terms of bringing in the dancers and all that.
After being in the heat for three nights,
(CHUCKLES) and shooting back to back, and being tired,
it felt really good to have everyone come together at the end,
and do a round dance together as cast and crew.
DALLAS GOLDTOOTH: Come on out!
(LIVELY CHATTER)
Here we go.
There you go. Come in. Good. Good.
I'll come on in. I'll join, too.
Gonna get this started. Here we go!
-(MEN SINGING, DRUMS BEATING) -(RHYTHMIC JINGLING)
GOLDTOOTH: Historic first.
This is the first round dance of the MCU right here.
You're a part of this, people. You're making history right now!
(CHEERS)
BREAD: Usually for powwows,
they'll do one more song for everyone to join,
and send people home with a prayer.
And that's something that I wanted to do and pay homage to.
People were even holding hands, laughing with each other.
People were having a good time. Like, it felt so good to see
everyone come together, because with powwows,
and with production, and with just being Indigenous,
no one can ever do anything by themselves.
It takes a community,
it takes teamwork to come together,
and to fully have that experience.
So, for us to do a round dance at the end, it was a really beautiful moment.
It was a beautiful moment to see people that have been tense behind camera,
or people that have been running around,
just rejoice and finally understand the beauty
of what we just did.
And to see the sun coming up, and to take that in,
and to take in the fresh moment,
it felt really powerful.
WOMAN: Thank you for the lives, Lord,
that are represented, the tribes that are represented,
the nations that are represented.
I just pray that you will just continue to work within us.
For we are all here for a purpose. And that's your purpose.
I just give you all the glory, honor and praise, Lord.
PALMER: She's not exactly a hero by the end of this show.
I think she has chosen her family,
and chosen selflessness over selfishness.
But that doesn't exactly make her a hero yet.
(GASPING)
What did you just do?
What did you do? Huh?
(YELLS) What did you do?
D'ONOFRIO: I love it that Fisk comes into the series,
and you get to see that relationship that's iconic when it comes to the comic.
But there is so much more to Echo than that.
It's Maya's origin story to become Echo,
and it's got this flavor that's very spiritual and very cool.
CARDINAL: I was raised by my grandmother.
I was raised in the bush,
and the people that have been my heroes are people from the land.
And that's where my essence breathes from.
I couldn't be involved unless my world can be brought forward.
And this is my world.
FREELAND: One of the things that initially attracted me to the project
was this idea of balance is something that is very specific
to Native American communities.
It's like, "Oh, this is cool."
"It isn't about a character swinging between extremes.
"It's about a character on an extreme finding balance."
HENRY: I don't want you to become me.
CHASKE: I'm very proud and very grateful to be a part of Maya's story.
And Alaqua is amazing as Maya Lopez,
and the supporting cast around her were her team.
GRAHAM GREENE: When I started out in the business 42 years ago,
there wasn't that many opportunities left.
There's a lot of really talented kids out there
that should be part of this, if they wanted to be.
And lo and behold, there's Alaqua.
I'm so proud of her. She's just a wonderful girl.
(ALAQUA SIGNING)
MAN: Ladies and gentlemen, that is a wrap on Echo.
-Way to go, everybody. -(APPLAUSE)
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you, everybody.