Echo’s title as first mature-rated MCU show is cemented by one shocking scene

❘ Published: 2024-01-10T20:03:42

Disney+

Echo is the first MCU series to receive a TV-MA rating and one scene in particular cements why it deserves the badge.

After months of anticipation, fans can finally binge-watch all five episodes of Marvel‘s latest mini series Echo.

Following the events of 2021’s Hawkeye, the series sees ex-Tracksuit Mafia leader Maya Lopez being hunted by her adoptive uncle Wilson Fisk aka Kingpin and escaping to her hometown in Oklahoma where she must confront her complicated past.

Echo is the first show in the MCU to receive a TV-MA rating and, from its first trailer, fans could see why as it’s the bloodiest show in the canon so far. However, upon its release, fans realized why the series received this badge thanks to one shocking scene in the very beginning. Warning — spoilers ahead!

Echo’s TV-MA rating is clear from Episode 1

As a newly minted foot solider for Kingpin’s organization, Maya is set to take down an smuggling operation that was trying to encroach on his territory.

Not being use to the exceptional level of violence within the business, Maya is soon taken down by one of the opposing sides henchmen but, using her untapped rage leftover from her father’s untimely murder, Maya manages to get the henchmen in a body hold and cleanly break his spine.

This level of brutality is not something fans have really seen within the live-action MCU; people have died and we’ve seen heroes kill others, sure, but to see Maya break the henchmen’s spine and the lingering shot on the action is incredibly harrowing and makes one realize why the show received its mature rating.

Maya’s spine breaking maneuver was only a taste of what was to come in the rest of the series as fans were treated to various brutal deaths including people being shot in the head, having their faces bashed in, and being blown up.

Though some may find the unwavering violence found in Echo off-putting, the show needed to showcase a level of brutality because the world Maya and Kingpin are in doesn’t shy away from things because its too bloody and messy.

The decision to give Echo its TV-MA rating opens the door for other MCU projects to push back the established boundaries set in Phases 1 through 5 and allow other projects to push the envelope of storytelling within this world.

Echo is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. You can check out more of Dexerto’s coverage of the MCU series below: