LOS ANGELES – The protagonist of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series Echo, Maya Lopez, is not your typical superhero.

The Native American is also deaf and an amputee with a prosthetic leg.

And the actress who plays her, Alaqua Cox, shares all these characteristics – making her the first disabled actress, as well as the first indigenous American, to be the lead in a Marvel production.

Maya Lopez/Echo first appeared as a supporting character in the Daredevil comics in the 1990s, and then on screen as a villain in the Marvel television series Hawkeye (2021).

The show, debuting on Disney+ on Jan 10, turns the spotlight on Echo as she is pursued by the henchmen of Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), the crime boss and father figure with whom she has a complicated history.

Speaking to reporters over Zoom, Cox says the similarities between her and Echo run deep.

“We both have childhood trauma,” says the 26-year-old, who left her home on a Native American reservation in Wisconsin to join the Hawkeye cast for her first acting role a few years ago.

“I grew up as an amputee and went through many different kinds of surgery as a child, so that made me a warrior, in a sense.”

Cox’s character, Lopez, experienced the death of her mother and other tragic events.

“It makes us very similar in a way because we’re both warriors, we’re tough and we’re bad-a**,” says Cox.

D’Onofrio, 64, played Kingpin in Hawkeye and Daredevil (2015 to 2018), the Marvel superhero series starring Charlie Cox as the eponymous blind lawyer turned crimefighter, who also appears in the new show.

But D’Onofrio feels like this series is the most meaningful exploration of his character yet.

Compared with the previous shows, Echo has “a grittier feel to it and it’s a more emotional story with me and Maya”, he says.

“I think that kind of tone is where my character lives best,” says the American actor, who is also known for playing police detective Robert Goren in crime series Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001 to 2011).

The veteran performer adds that he was blown away by his young co-star despite her limited acting experience.

“The girl knows what she’s doing and I was impressed every day. When the camera was rolling, she was there in every capacity.

“I was able to react to her and, I guess, her to me. I felt like we were very fortunate to be able to portray these characters as a father-daughter kind of relationship.”

Echo is skilled in martial arts and hand-to-hand combat, and Cox did not let anything hold her back when it came to the show’s fight scenes.

She trained hard five days a week with the stunt team, and was able to turn her prosthetic leg into an advantage that gave her greater leverage as well as pain tolerance.

Cox says: “I grew up playing different kinds of sports, plus I have an older brother who helped me become more of an athlete because he’s very athletic.

“We’re about 1½ years apart and we wrestled growing up, so that toughened me up.

“And I was able to learn choreography, jabs, fights and specific moves. That was very challenging but it was the greatest part of the project and a fun journey for me,” she says.

For director and producer Sydney Freeland, the story presented an opportunity to delve into the culture of the Choctaw tribe that Echo is a member of.

With the blessing and help of the community, the production tried to be as authentic as possible in its portrayal of the Choctaw language, culture and experience, says the 43-year-old American film-maker.

Freeland was raised on a Navajo reservation, and directed episodes of the medical series Grey’s Anatomy (2005 to present) and zombie drama Fear The Walking Dead (2015 to 2023).

“People tend to jumble all Native American tribes and cultures into this one big monolith, and that’s not the case,” she says.

“Every tribe is different, every language is different, every culture has its own unique specificities.”

• Echo premieres on Disney+ on Jan 10.