The building blocks of Marvel’s now-vast cinematic universe seem readily apparent to even those only vaguely aware of the comic book sources. Assemble the iconic Avengers, first in their respective solo films and then in a series of group efforts, add in a few exciting extras like Doctor Strange and Spider-Man, and voila — blockbuster box office and leveraged IP as far as the eye can see. So why would Kevin Feige, Marvel’s principal architect and commander and chief, have a series starring Moon Knight, one of Marvel’s most convoluted characters, in mind from square one?
Co-executive producer Grant Curtis revealed at today’s Marvel Studios global press conference that Feige — whose legendary knowledge of the Marvel Comics universe helped land him his job as studio president — had the esoteric vigilante in mind for quite some time.
“Well, I think Moon Knight, in particular, has been on Kevin Feige’s radar from day one. I mean you look at his history, first appeared in Werewolf By Night in 1975, then he kind of bounced around in the Marvel universe for the next five years, then got his own offering in 1980.”
Despite his nearly 50-year pedigree, Moon Knight’s recognizability is far cry from comic legends like Batman, Spider-Man, and Iron Man. Although the character’s origin has remained consistent over the years — he dies and is brought back to life by the God of Vengeance, Khonshu, as Moon Knight — Moon Knight himself can’t even keep his own name straight. The character’s core personality, Marc Spector, shares time with at least two more personalities at any given incarnation.
The character’s publication history is no less complex. The title has been launched and relaunched multiple times with 9 volumes so far, not including the current title Moon Knight: Welcome to New Egypt and the upcoming Moon Knight: Black, White, and Blood scheduled to be released alongside the television series. Almost every volume has been helmed by a new creative team, with some being highly lauded, such as the seminal Volume 1 by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz, and the Volume 7 run by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey, and some being dismissed as forgettable and even ridiculous.
It’s safe to say at this point that the series will combine several elements from multiple series in an attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff. The trailers and clips available thus far show that the series will lean hard into the elements of ancient Egypt used by writer/artist teams in the past. Whether or not we’ll see elements from the comics that haven’t been announced, such as Moon Knight’s longtime paramour, Marlene, or pilot Jean-Paul Duchamp, will only be revealed after the series drops next week.
As Curtis said at the conference,
“When you look at years and decades of storytelling as the great storytellers and artists on the Moon Knight pages have been doing,” “I think this was a natural progression, a merger into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And I think this was the perfect time. I mean you look at Disney Plus and needing a broader canvas to tell this incredible story. March 30th the audience will see it and this was the perfect time to drop into the universe.”
