‘Moon Knight’ Originally Included Multiple MCU Crossovers
If someone were to watch Moon Knight without knowing about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they wouldn’t be confused. The series contains no direct references to the MCU, even during the Moon Knight post-credits scene. And it doesn’t build upon its continuity within the span of its six episodes. However, a few MCU crossovers were originally planned for the Marvel Disney+ series.
‘Moon Knight’ director Mohamed Diab explained why there were no MCU crossovers
Following the Moon Knight finale, director Mohamed Diab spoke with Variety about the series and revealed why it doesn’t contain any MCU references.
“We had the freedom to place it whenever [in the MCU],” he explained. “I want to tell you the very first scene, there was a crossover, and the very end scene, there was a crossover. But as the story developed and we kept changing the scripts, we felt like, ‘We don’t need that.’ All of us. It was a collective decision. And then I kept thinking: It’s a rule. There has to be a scene at the end that connects us to the MCU.”
Diab continued, “But I think they decided, ‘You know what, the surprise is that there isn’t, and what’s going to make this show unique is it doesn’t need anything else.’ The best compliment we get on the show is when people tell us, ‘This doesn’t feel like a Marvel show. It feels like a standalone show that feels more dramatic, more dark, grounded.’ I feel like we succeeded in bringing Marvel more to our corner. So, so proud and happy.”
So what were the MCU crossovers that Marvel had planned for Moon Knight? Thankfully, we know a few.
The Eternals were supposed to make a cameo
Per The Direct, the Eternals from the MCU were initially in a Moon Knight script. Head writer and executive producer Jeremy Slater spilled the beans regarding the imagined crossover with The Direct.
“I tried very hard to get the Eternals into the show, just because I’m buddies with Kumail Nanjiani,” Slater revealed. “I want[ed] some Kingo. At one point, there was a flashback on the page that sort of showed one of Khonshu’s Avatars back in ancient Egypt, sort of dealing with Ammit being locked away, and Alexander the Great, and all of that stuff. You sort of saw this Avatar team-up with the Eternals.”
The writer added, “It was a really fun scene, but again, it was so massively expensive to recreate Ancient Egypt, to sort of bring in three or four of the Eternals to have this big action sequence … So, that was the cameo I had to cut.”
“It hurt, but it was also the right thing to do for the show. And I think everyone sort of collectively agreed,” Slater concluded. “There’s plenty of time in the future to team this guy up with other characters in the MCU and start building these connections; let’s not force something just because the other shows have all had it.”
Unfortunately, budget cuts were a factor in throwing out the Eternals cameo in Moon Knight. But hopefully, the Eternals and Moon Knight will team up sometime in the MCU’s future.
‘Moon Knight’ nixed references to the MCU’s ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’
During another interview with The Direct, Jeremy Slater revealed that original Moon Knight scripts made references to an upcoming MCU villain — Gorr the God Butcher from Thor: Love and Thunder.
“There were different versions of the script where the Gods would sort of talk about, ‘This thing with Gorr the God Butcher just happened, and now we’ve got this new problem,'” Slater said. “And then there were other versions of the script where they sort of talked about, ‘We’re hearing rumors [that] Gods are dying. This is not the right time to get involved.’ Like we tried to have our cake and eat it too.”
However, the Moon Knight producers weren’t sure if Thor: Love and Thunder would premiere before or after their show. And in the end, Marvel decided that Moon Knight didn’t need the reference to the MCU film.
Moon Knight is available to stream on Disney+.
