Marvel is giving the spotlight to a bunch of new heroes. The Eternals, Black Knight, Ms. Marvel, Shang-Chi, She-Hulk, Moon Knight & Blade are all new heroes getting their own films or Disney+ shows. What’s crazy is that we haven’t even got around to the big names like Deadpool, Silver Surfer, the X-Men or Fantastic Four. Among the aforementioned names, only Moon Knight is someone who has been referenced in the past. And these references went totally unnoticed.
Kevin Feige had stated several times that Moon Knight is a character he’d love to explore in the MCU. Then he got the reigns to do whatever he wanted in the MCU. The first chance that Feige got, he announced a Moon Knight project among others. The Moon Knight series may hit Disney+ in 2022, but the first reference of his existence happened way back in 2014.
In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Hydra Agent Jasper Sitwell name dropped Stephen Strange along with Bruce Banner and people got all hung over it for 2 years until the first Doctor Strange movie came out. It was important to note here that Sitwell was talking about taking down Stephen Strange because he was a brilliant surgeon. He hadn’t turned into Doctor Strange by then. But another important reference that people missed here was the callout to Moon Knight.
Sitwell also vaguely described a “TV anchor in Cairo, Egypt.” This was a reference to Marc Spector aka Moon Knight. It also happens in Civil War where a little dot is marked over Egypt. Each of these dots reference a catastrophic event led by the Avengers or may be some other heroes. There’s a marker on Brazil referencing the events of The Incredible Hulk. New York – The Avengers, Washington – The Winter Soldier, Sokovia – Age of Ultron, Lagos – Civil War. Strangely enough, there’s a dot marked over Egypt as well.
This dot over Egypt could be referencing the Vigilante activities of Marc Spector, who was perhaps spotted by Project Insight in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as well. If this is the case then Moon Knight might already exist in the MCU. We expect the Moon Knight series to dive into the origin of Marc Spector, but the show could start with Moon Knight being the protector of Cairo Egypt.
For those uninitiated, Moon Knight aka Marc Spector used to be a CIA Agent who almost met his demise at the hands of a terrorist called Bushman. It was the Moon God Khonshu who saved him and granted him a certain set of abilities. After taking down Bushman, Spector would take on the all-white costume and become Moon Knight. This backstory might be altered a bit in the MCU.
But what may not be altered is the split personality disorder of Marc Spector that makes him so unique as a character. Moon Knight has a total of 4 personalities residing in his head. Along with Marc Spector, we’d be seeing Steven Grant, Jake Lockley, and Khonshu himself all reside in one single person. So, this causes Moon Knight to be rather violent at times as well. It has been confirmed that Marvel won’t go as far as Netflix’s Punisher to show Moon Knight’s brutality, but we could certainly expect the level of intense action that was portrayed by Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Let’s see whether MCU will establish any connections for Moon Knight from the past events of the MCU.
Black Widow is going to kick off the future slate. Here’s how the rest of the MCU Phase 4 slate looks like – The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in August 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, WandaVision in December 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Spider-Man 3 on July 16, 2021, Ms. Marvel in 2021, What If? In Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021. Following these are Moon Knight and She-Hulk. Black Panther 2 has been scheduled for May 6, 2022. And 7 other unannounced films have release dates for 2022 & 2023.
