Fewer than half of the series’ 18 episodes had been shot, but it was enough for Marvel executives, including chief Kevin Feige, to review the footage and come away with a clear-eyed assessment: The show wasn’t working.
So, in late September, Marvel quietly let go of head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman and also released the directors for the remainder of the season as part of a significant creative reboot of the series, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Since debuting the Emmy-winning WandaVision in January 2021, the studio, which dominated the film industry in the 2010s, has released more than 50 hours of TV programming after creating a small-screen division from the ground up during the pandemic.
Production was challenging, with COVID hitting cast and crew, and Gao was brought back to oversee postproduction, a typical showrunner duty, but it’s the rare Marvel head writer who has such oversight.
The company dispatched Jonathan Schwartz, a senior executive and member of Marvel’s creative steering committee known as The Parliament, to get Secret Invasion back on track when it was falling behind schedule and on the verge of losing some actors because of other commitments.
Echo, which premieres in January, is a grounded crime story with few visual effects, revolving around deaf Native American antihero Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox).
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