Hawkeye’s Echo, played by Alaqua Cox, says she was greeted on set by her castmates signing compliments to her, in order to make her feel welcomed. One of the Marvel Studio’s newest releases, Hawkeye dropped the first two of six total episodes onto Disney+ on November 24. The series is a continuation of Clint Barton’s story after the events of Avengers: Endgame. This establishes Kate Bishop as part of the universe after she dawns the dangerous Ronin costume, unknowingly attracting his past enemies, forcing the pair to work together.

Echo, or Maya Lopez, was introduced at the end of Hawkeye episode 2, and episode 3 showcases her backstory. Audiences watch her grow up to become a leader within the tracksuit mafia, who’s looking for Ronin after he killed her father. Maya's deafness is fundamental to her character, as shown throughout the episode. In multiple different comic storylines, Clint Barton is Deaf or hard of hearing, a storyline that has been recently added to his MCU character as well.

Related: Who Is Echo: Hawkeye's Maya Explained (Comics History & Origin)

In an interview with Disney’s D23 magazine (via The Direct), Cox divulges what it was like joining the Hawkeye cast. She touches on how anxious she was to be on set with the other actors, given that this show marks her first professional acting job. She also expresses the ways her co-stars worked to make her feel welcomed and included as a Deaf actor:

It was such an honor to work with them both. I think they are spectacular actors, and I have learned a lot from watching them work behind the scenes… I remember meeting Jeremy on my first day of work on-set; I was a nervous wreck, as this was my very first acting job. He then complimented me in American Sign Language (ASL), which comforted me. Hailee also spelled out her name to me in ASL at the studio where we were doing our stunt training sessions. I thought it was sweet of them putting in efforts to learn basic ASL to communicate with me. It means a lot to me as a Deaf person.

Kate Bishop shooting her arrow in Hawkeye

Cox later goes on to speak about the importance of representation and praises the moves Marvel is making to be more inclusive. She states that she’s “so grateful to have this opportunity” to become a role model. Maya Lopez is only the second deaf character to be added to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the first being Lauren Ridloff’s character in Eternals, Makkari, who made her debut just a month before.

Having more diverse casting and accurate representation is not only important for a compelling story, but also for fans to see themselves represented within media. There’s a severe lack of diverse characters within TV and movies, especially those actually played by the people they are meant to represent. This is evident within the MCU, where there has been little to no attention focus on diverse characters or casting throughout the past 3 phases. However, Marvel Studios is making more of an effort to represent stories of people from all different backgrounds throughout Phase 4, as seen in Hawkeye. Fans can look forward to seeing more inclusive storylines from Marvel in their upcoming projects, including Echo’s spinoff series currently in development with Disney+.

Next: Echo: What To Expect From The MCU's Hawkeye Spin-Off Show

Source: D23 Magazine (via The Direct)

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