'Echo' Will Have A Choctaw Dub Available On Disney+

Representation matters, and it was a logical step considering other measures with language availability the streamer has taken.

A crucial aspect of Marvel Studios’s upcoming Disney+ and Hulu series Echo is Alaqua Cox’s Maya Lopez reconnecting with her Native American, specifically Choctaw roots. It only makes sense to enhance the experience for that specific audience after working so closely with them to bring the authenticity to the series regarding the history, costumes, and characters. Thus, it should come as no surprise that Echo has been completely dubbed into Choctaw.

“In the process of working and collaborating with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, in working with the Choctaw language experts and consultants, it became very apparent that we needed to do a dub in Choctaw as well,” director Sydney Freeland says. “And we're incredibly proud of it.” She would continue saying “Placing the story of Echo in the actual Choctaw language helps make our character more authentic to her heritage, because we get to delve into the specifics of Choctaw culture and traditions. I'm indigenous, I'm American, but I'm Navajo. And the Choctaw language and the Navajo language are completely different from each other; they're as different as Portuguese and Polish. And so one of the things that was important for us was making sure that we had people who were experts in Choctaw language. But a lot of really great things came out of that collaboration — specifically, in the second episode of our series, we actually get to see a portion of pre-European contact America that I can genuinely say has never been seen on film before. That came as a direct result of our collaboration with the Choctaw Nation in trying to tell a more authentic story."

A featurette, originally released through Entertainment Weekly who Freeland was telling this all to, has been posted to the Marvel Entertainment YouTube channel, showing she and consultant Terry Billy work on recording the dub and a taste of the extent they incorporated Choctaw history and culture, both from behind-the-scenes and in-the-scenes perspectives. Billy told the publication “I became a translator for my grandmother, who didn’t speak English, beginning at a young age.  I’ve lived a life of interpreting the world from English to Choctaw. The crisis of tribal language loss has heightened my purpose in exploring opportunities to provide many avenues to attract new language learners and preserve the language in all its aspects from spirituality to social conversations.” He describes that by presenting the language in these manners, the show becomes an educational tool.

Disney+ of course offers audio tracks in a variety of languages, though they vary from title to title. However they’re usually wider-used European and Asian languages. There are some special cases that use languages of Native American tribes, like the available Navajo dubs of Star Wars: A New Hope and Finding Nemo, and Bambi in Arapaho, which is only spoken by about 1000 people. For international indigenous tribes, Moana is available in Tahitian, a Polynesian language not only spoken in Tahiti but other islands in French Polynesia. The Lion King is available in Zulu, a Bantu language spoken by more than nine million people, primarily in South Africa, and Frozen is available in Maori for the New Zealand and Australia audience. Based on the location of these versions, the Choctaw dub should be found in the Extras section of Echo’s page, because for some reason the Versions section is only for differing aspect ratios.

A spin-off of 2021’s Hawkeye, Marvel Studios’s Echo will see Maya face her past and embrace the meaning of family and community, at least if she ever hopes to move forward while balancing aspirations tied to a life of crime as successor to Kingpin’s (played once again by Vincent D’Onofrio) brutal legacy. The series also stars Devery Jacobs, who recently originated the role of Mohawk hero Kahhori in What If…? but plays a different role here, Chaske Spencer, Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal, Zahn McClarnon, and Cody Lightning. Charlie Cox will reprise his role as Daredevil. Catriona McKenzie (Gunaikurnai) directs the episodes Freeland does not. Freeland also executive produces with Kevin Feige, Stephen Broussard, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Victoria Alonso, Richie Palmer, Jason Gavin (Blackfeet), Marion Dayre and with co-executive producers Jennifer L. Booth and Amy Rardin. All five episodes will release on Disney+ and Hulu on Tuesday, January 9 at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific.

Sources: Entertainment Weekly, What’s On Disney Plus