Loki Season 2 Gets October Premiere, Echo Will Stream All At Once
Marvel Studios has just announced the release dates for two highly anticipated Disney+ series, and it looks like one of them is set to break the precedent for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. According to a tweet shared by Marvel Studios this afternoon, the "Hawkeye" spin-off series "Echo" is set to debut on November 29, 2023 – in its entirety. This marks a departure from the release model the MCU has been using for its Disney+ series since the streamer's inception, as past shows like "Loki," "WandaVision" and "Ms. Marvel" have all used the classic weekly release method.
Fans of Alaqua Cox's badass antihero Echo (aka Maya Lopez) will get to binge-watch the character's next chapter right in time for the holiday season, while "Loki"-lovers will see Tom Hiddleston's trickster god return on October 6, 2023. It's worth noting, though, that "Loki" appears to be sticking with the weekly release model, as the Twitter announcement says that "A new season of #Loki starts streaming October 6, 2023," whereas "all episodes of #Echo drop November 29, 2023."
It's not a major surprise that Marvel and Disney+ would fiddle with their release structure, given the fact that the streaming industry appears to be less stable than ever and Marvel titles have been varyingly successful post-"Avengers: Endgame."
Get ready for a Disney+ binge-watch
While "Loki" season 1 was the most-watched Disney+ series premiere at that time, it also had the benefit of being among the first wave of Marvel shows to hit Disney+. Since then, five others have arrived, along with a handful of movies that have seen lower box office numbers than previous Marvel outings. With a multi-year plan in the pipeline, Marvel seems to be using "Echo" as a test subject for future shows; if the binge model works better, maybe we'll see more single-day releases like this.
Some Marvel fans have been vocal about the fact that it's disappointing to see superhero fatigue set in around the time that women, people of color, and other diverse heroes are finally getting their moment in the spotlight. The "Echo" release will no doubt stir up some of the same feelings, as the show is about a Native American deaf superhero (or antihero, since she's aligned with Kingpin when she's introduced in "Hawkeye") and the single-day release could be seen as a failure on the streamer's part to commit to Maya's story in a way that could build a lasting fanbase for the character.
That being said, "Echo" was the Marvel project I was most excited about before this announcement, and it still is regardless of how it's released. You can't keep a good hero down, and until Disney+ has actually tried it, a binge-model release doesn't necessarily bode either well or poorly for the series.
You can have your Marvel shows both ways, binge-style or weekly watch, by tuning into "Loki" season 2 on October 6, 2023, and "Echo" on November 29, 2023, both on Disney+.