This is the series of the moment: in the space of six episodes, Moon Knight has established itself as one of the best productions of Marvel Studios, at least on the side of the series. A success that we can congratulate, especially since the links made with the Marvel Cinematic Universe are very light. However, things could have been very different.
A series with little connection to the MCU
If you are simply curious, you may have planned to go and discover Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (of which here is our review), available at the cinema since this Wednesday, May 4. But if you’re a die-hard Marvel and MCU fan, you don’t just follow the movies, and probably watch all of them. the series available on Disney+. The latest is a real hit, and it’s called Moon Knight.
Now that the series – or at least its first season – has come to an end with its sixth episode, the teams who worked on it can express themselves a little more freely. Just yesterday, Variety therefore published an interview recently granted to them by Mohamed Diab, the director of the Marvel series. The opportunity for him to come back to several elements seen in it, but also others that did NOT appear. Indeed, two MCU character cameos were originally planned, but these never saw the light of day. Here’s why.
Moonknight, a true standalone within the MCU
To brush it off, Marvel has a habit of including plenty of references, nods, and other MCU references. On that side, fans of Moon Knight have been served. On the other hand, no cameo to note, not even during the post-credits scenes. However, two were initially planned, during the first and last episode of the season, as director Mohamed Diab explains:
We had the possibility of integrating [des caméos] whenever. In the very first scene, there was a crossover, and in the last scene, there was a crossover. But as the story developed and we kept changing the script, we thought, “We don’t need this.” All. It was a collective decision. And then I kept thinking: it’s a rule. There must be a scene at the end that ties us back to the MCU.
But I think we decided: “You know what? The surprise is that there is none, and what’s going to make this series unique is that it doesn’t need anything else.” The best compliment we get on the show is when people tell us, “It doesn’t feel like a Marvel show. It feels like a more dramatic, darker, established standalone show.” I have the feeling that we managed to appropriate Marvel. I am so proud and happy.
It is therefore the desire to offer the public a standalone series, that is to say autonomous, which therefore pushed the director, the screenwriters and the rest of their teams not to include too many connections to the MCU or cameos, however planned in the first versions of the script. On the other hand, we don’t have no information regarding the identity of the characters who were to appear at the very beginning and at the very end of Moon Knight. The bets are open !
