Perhaps one of the biggest strengths of Marvel Studios' Moon Knight is that it feels very much separate from what has been occurring recently in the MCU. Now, director Aaron Moorhead explains why the series does in fact try to avoid any MCU connections.
The Marvel Studios series follows Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector, a Jewish-American mercenary with dissociative identity disorder (DID). His character eventually becomes a conduit for the Egyptian moon god, Khonshu, as the multiple identities of Moon Knight fight for control of his body amid a war against the backdrop of modern and Ancient Egypt.
Speaking with Digital Spy prior to the official premiere of the series back in March, Moorhead, who is helming four of the six episodes with longtime collaborator Justin Benson, said the series does in fact avoid many of the MCU connections, which is a big reason why he decided to join the project in the first place. "Making sure that Moon Knight was something that could completely stand alone as a character was one of the foundations of doing this entire project," Moorhead shared. "Our executive producer Grant [Curtis] and also Mohamed [Diab], the other director and EP, they were all saying, 'There's no reason to do this if we're not going to be able to be bold by spending all the currency of having a character that no one knows anything about, and it doesn't have to tie in in any way. There's no expectations on him, so we can do anything that we want.'"
In terms of why the character resonated with him and now with many audiences, Moorhead pointed out that Marc Spector/Steven Grant is "an outsider and he's something very different than the rest of that universe. And that's also something that emboldened us to take some unusual risks with it." While for now it is exciting to see Isaac's character have his time to shine in his solo outing, fans of course know that it will not last long. Moon Knight is expected to cross paths with a few other MCU characters soon, especially now with the opening of alternate realities and characters hopping between them.
Another scenario that could play out is Moon Knight teaming up with Blade, as the character has already begun recruiting people involved with the supernatural side of the universe, as seen with Dane Whitman/Black Knight in Eternals. But whatever is the case, fans will just have to stay tuned for these last couple of episodes of Moon Knight while also catching the big feature films set to release later this year.
Moon Knight also stars Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow, the series' main antagonist, Gaspard Ulliel as Anton Mogart/Midnight Man, May Calamawy as Layla El-Faouly, F. Murray Abraham as the voice of Khonshu, Khalid Abdalla as Selim, and Lucy Thackeray as Donna.
Moon Knight is now streaming on Disney Plus.
Source: Digital Spy