Marvel Studios' Moon Knight focused a lot on Egyptian gods, particularly Khonshu and Ammit, which means the Disney Plus series would have been the perfect stage for the Eternals to make an appearance. Now, Moon Knight head writer and executive producer Jeremy Slater revealed that such an appearance almost happened.
Moon Knight centered on the conflict between Oscar Isaac's Marc Spector/Steven Grant and Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow, with the former serving as the avatar for the Egyptian god Khonshu while there latter led a cult dedicated to resurrecting the goddess Ammit. Meanwhile, Eternals told the story of a group of superpowered beings who were secretly living on Earth for thousands of years, silently helping humanity move along and often being regarded as gods themselves.
Naturally, it is entirely conceivable that some of the Egyptian gods and the Eternals might have crossed paths in the MCU at some point, and Slater recently revealed that the creative team on Moon Knight almost leaned into that idea. During an interview with The Direct, Slater revealed that he tried to get the Eternals, especially Kumail Nanjiani's Kingo, to appear in a flashback scene in which the team would have aided Khonshu. "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," Slater explained. "It was a really fun scene, but again, it was so massively expensive to recreate Ancient Egypt, to sort of bring in 3 or 4 of the Eternals to have this big action sequence."
Unfortunately, the cost of such a sequence, which Slater indicated would have been a cold open for one of the Moon Knight episodes, would have likely hurt the budget for the finale. "It hurt, but it was also the right thing to do for the show, and I think everyone sort of collectively agreed," Slater said of the decision to cut the scene. "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."
While it might have been fun to see the Eternals in Moon Knight, Slater's comment about there still being time for such as a crossover is likely encouraging to fans. As of now, an Eternals sequel and Moon Knight season 2 have yet to be confirmed by Marvel Studios, despite both projects concluding with what most would consider cliffhanger endings.
Then again, part of what audiences loved about Moon Knight was its limited connection to the MCU. So, perhaps it was best to save any appearances by other MCU heroes for future Moon Knight stories, whether they be on TV or the big screen.
Moon Knight and Eternals are now streaming on Disney Plus.
Source: The Direct