Once upon a time, Marvel Studios had grand plans to expand the MCU by exploring some of its more obscure corners and characters through streaming series on Disney Plus. As recently as 2022, the studio hoped to push out 3 or 4 live-action streaming series each year in addition to animated content, providing nearly non-stop Marvel to its fans. That all changed with the return of Bob Iger to the Disney throne and now development has slowed to what Marvel’s head of streaming, television and animation, Brad Winderbaum called “a more considered approach” that involved significant rebranding.
That more considered approach, according to Winderbaum, will see the studio pare down its streaming slate to two series each year while continuing to develop an unquantified number of projects. In Winderbaum’s words, the studio will be “developing more than we make.” And those words are incredibly relevant to some interesting news about a potential second season to one of Marvel’s strangest and most well-reviewed streaming series.
I really like the idea of two shows a year, especially because we are developing more than we make. We used to treat the shows like the features where we’re gonna make a show and that’s it, we’re going to hit a release date, hell or high water. Well, it’s hard to do for a two hour feature, it’s even harder to do for, six, seven, eight, nine hours. So now we have a more traditional approach.
-Brad Winderbaum on Marvel Studios’ new apporach to developing streaming projects
According to trusted MCU insider Daniel RPK, Winderbaum and the fine folks behind the D+ streaming series are developing a second season of Moon Knight.
In 2022, Moon Knight introduced Oscar Isaac‘s multi-personalitied Marc Spector to the MCU and proved to be a rare case of a streaming series gaining viewers over time. As the series concluded, there were signs and speculation that a second season might be in the works though nobody, including Isaac and director Mohamed Diab, knew of any plans on Disney’s part to continue the story of Moon Knight. “I’m kept in the dark, just like the fans…Marvel doesn’t go with a conventional way, so even if they like the character and want to extend the world, it could be Season 2, it could be a standalone film, or he can join another superhero’s journey,” said Diab in 2022. “We never discussed it being a Season 2, but one day there’s going to be an expansion, but I don’t know how it’s going to look like.“
And let’s just put everything out on the table on this story. There’s definitely no official plans to continue it. I think it would depend on what the story is. That being said, I love being Steven. I just love it. It’s just like, physically, it’s so much fun to be him. So, you know, if there was a story that really made sense, I’d be happy to be part of it.
–Oscar Isaac on the potential of a second season of Moon Knight, May, 2022
Season 1 of Moon Knight was a hit with critics (86% at Rotten Tomatoes) and introduced a whole new brand of weirdness into the MCU. Complete with a talking hippo goddess and twists and turns that left fans wondering what was real and what was not, Moon Knight also provided a wonderful exploration of the fractured psyche of Spector, whose dissociative identity disorder created several interesting personalities who manifested themselves throughout the series and even into its post-credit scene.
Despite the lack of concrete plans for the future of the character, Isaac promised fans that the character had a future, saying “This isn’t the last we’ve heard of the system that is Moon Knight,” during an appearance at NYCC ’22. As time has passed and moved further and further away from the series’ release, news and even rumors about a second season of Moon Knight have slowly ground to a halt. While at this point another season of the series would seem unlikely to make its way to Disney Plus before 2027, should it make it through development, it’s good to know there’s hope for more of the wonderful weirdness that made the first season of Moon Knight such a fun ride.
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