The next project from Marvel Studios, which is confirmed to be rated TV-MA, is said to be the MCU's darkest entry to date on Disney+.
Marvel is no stranger to bringing more mature stories to life, with many pointing to the six shows in the Defenders Saga produced by Netflix as prime examples of some of the best mature superhero shows in recent memory.
Marvel Studios has even dipped into TV-MA territory for brief moments as well, giving 2022's Moon Knight plenty of violent yet non-R-rated moments as well as Werewolf By Night.
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MCU's New Disney+ Show Said to Be Darkest Yet
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige (via X user DDevilUpdates) confirmed the next MCU Disney+ series, Echo, will be the darkest MCU project ever to hit Disney+.
At the world premiere event for the TV-MA-rated series, which is the first in Marvel Studios history, Feige praised Disney+ for allowing the franchise to do so many "different types of shows."
He went on to confirm Echo is "TV-MA" and "an adult show" while describing it as "the darkest one yet" to debut under the Marvel Studios umbrella:
"The greatest thing about Disney+ for us, we can do all different types of shows, and we’ve been able to do a Christmas show and a time travel show and a black & white sitcom. This is a TV-MA show. This is an adult show that, just like the 'Marvel Knights' comics where Echo first started, it goes much deeper and much darker in ways that we could only do with a TV-MA rating, so I am excited for people to see, as readers of the comics know, the different tonalities that we’ve been able to do in all of our shows and this being the darkest one yet."
Will Marvel Do More TV-MA/R-Rated Content?
While Echo is the first Marvel Studios project to boast a TV-MA rating from the MPAA, it joins a trio of other movies and Disney+ shows to use a more mature tone for its run in Phase 5.
2024 will bring the MCU’s first-ever R-rated movie to theaters in Deadpool 3, giving Ryan Reynolds' threequel the same rating as his first two Deadpool films from 20th Century Fox.
Disney+ will also add another TV-MA series to its catalog with Marvel Zombies, going into some dark and violent action as zombies return to the MCU for the first time since What If...? Season 1.
Later, the franchise is also confirmed to give Blade the R-rating fans wanted to see as Marvel’s vampire hunter gets to engage in all the violence and gore he’s used to seeing in Marvel Comics.
As for Echo, many are hoping the show will set up even more TV-MA stories to come on Disney+, particularly with Daredevil and Kingpin both taking center stage in Daredevil: Born Again after this series.
And with early reviews teasing plenty of that mature action from the first three episodes, it should be only a matter of time until more of the same joins the grand MCU timeline.
All five episodes of Echo are now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
