He’s an Avenger with 47 years of comic book history and stories, but even then, few will recognise the character of supernatural vigilante Moon Knight, or understand how a relatively second-tier character could make his way into the massive Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in his own Disney+ series, and producer Grant Curtis won’t have it any other way.
Add in the fact that Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige originally wanted the avatar of the Egyptian Moon God to appear at the start of the MCU, and you can understand why he is just the right new hero to make his debut in Phase 4 of the franchise, along with Shang-Chi in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings last year.
Curtis says that it’s the hero’s exact peculiarity that makes it such an interesting story to tell in a limited series format, as it gave the creative folks behind the series the opportunity to delve deep into the character and the story they aim to tell.
“Moon Knight is admittedly the character that’s not on the tip of everyone’s tongue so this was really an opportunity for our head writer, Jeremy Slater, and our incredible talented room of writers to really go through comics and figure out those themes and those tones that we thought infused into the series better than others,” explains Curtis in an exclusive interview with Geek Culture.
“So it’s really just picking and choosing those aspects that we want to tell in this Moon Knight narrative. I think Jeremy Slater did an incredible job and I think Mohamed Diab and our other directors continued to carry that narrative torch.”
Moon Knight was created by noted comic book writer Doug Moench, and artist Don Perlin, and first appeared in August of 1975 in issue #32 of Werewolf by Night. In the series, the character, granted abilities by Egyptian deity Khonshu, was hired to apprehend the titular werewolf on the run and fought against the lupine antihero for two issues. What seemed like a brief introduction became just the beginning of many comic appearances. Since then, the Moon Knight comics have been published under 9 volumes with varying issue runs, with the most recent one released in 2021.
Through his many years in the comics, Moon Knight has been associated with many superhero teams, including the famous Avengers. Whilst the Disney+ series is focused on introducing the character and delving into Ancient Egypt mythology, Curtis thinks he’ll fit right in.
Smartly dodging questions around a potential season two and where else fans can see the Fist of Khonshu too, Curtis believes there is definitely more in store for the hero – as long as Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige wills it.
“Although he was one of the Avengers in the comics, nobody ever knew quite what they were getting because he is such a unique character. I think he merges well with any team in the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” said Curtis.
“When you have a character study that’s very rich and very complex, about a character with dissociative identity disorder, when you’re dealing with spookier aspects in the MCU things that go bump in the night, when you’re dealing with the humorous aspects and the humorous storylines that were historically in the Moon Knight IP and then you look at the broader MCU universe – I don’t know exactly where he goes, Kevin knows, but I can tell you this – because his tapestry is so rich in this series, I think he merges seamlessly into anywhere Kevin wants Moon Knight to go from here.”
A big chunk of Curtis’ confidence is due to the unique tone and themes that Moon Knight explores. Moon Knight breaks from the MCU and jumps headfirst into Egyptian mythology, which is something the studios has not dabbled in before. The mixed elements of action, adventure and horror is also something that fans have not seen in any past MCU titled, including movies the time-warping and genre-bending Loki and the eerie WandaVision . But it fits right in with the demands from audiences who have been begging for something new from the studio.
“There have been so many years of great storytelling, but what are those themes and those tones that we really wanted to explore? We were really drawn to the globe-trotting, action-adventure appeal of a movie like Indiana Jones,” explained Curtis.
“There are aspects of that in Moon Knight, and specifically his origin story so it’s really ratcheting up those moments of the Moon Knight IP that have already existed, and then making it new and unique.”
Moon Knight stars Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke and May Calamawy. The series is now out on Disney+.
Don’t judge a book by its cover, for behind all this makeup, is a geek just like you. To simply put it, superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter and all things gore and creepy makes this girly girl swoon.
Natalie
Trinity Sun
