Murphy's Multiverse

Tag: Moon Knight

  • How Kevin Feige was Convinced to Produce ‘Moon Knight’ Series

    How Kevin Feige was Convinced to Produce ‘Moon Knight’ Series

    In a recent interview, Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater brought up how the series was pitched to Kevin Feige in order for Marvel Studios to green-light and produce the project. The writer discussed the challenges with the character often being compared to Batman and a lack of originality that may come from producing a series like Moon Knight if done inadequately.

    That’s always been a little bit of a Moon Knight problem is, in the wrong hands, he’s just a sort of Batman clone with a pallet swap and Batman’s got an 80-year head start on us. It’s very easy to do something that would just feel super derivative.

    Jeremy Slater

    With that in mind, it was certainly important for Jeremy Slater to track down what original elements would best thrive when developing this series. When discussing Moon Knight with other people working within Marvel Studios, they provided insight into what specific factors to focus on when Slater would pitch the project to Feige.

    They gave us this and they’re like, ‘Look, he loves the mental health aspect. He loves the dissociative identity disorder and he’s really drawn to the Egyptology. He likes the Jeff Lemire run, the idea that you could be on the bus and look out the window and see an Egyptian god standing on the street corner.’ That was something Kevin [Feige] sort of identified early-on of like, ‘Okay, well, that’s interesting. That’s unique.’ That’s kind of all the information I had going in.

    Jeremy Slater

    All of the factors that were presented in the pitch were critical in making Moon Knight stand out as an original series. The influence of Jeff Lemire’s notable run with the character is very noticeable in the blend of the normal world with grandiose Egyptian mythology. As well, the series spending time in dealing with the Dissociative Identity Disorder of the protagonist helped prevent the show from being labeled as derivative of any Batman adaptations. Overall, it provides an insight into Marvel Studios’ focus into producing original stories within the field of the superhero genre.

    Source: Comicbook.com

  • Jeremy Slater Tried Referencing Popular Dracula Meme in ‘Moon Knight’

    Jeremy Slater Tried Referencing Popular Dracula Meme in ‘Moon Knight’

    Before Moon Knight debuted on Disney+, the majority of internet users probably knew the character best from memes rather than comics. A few years ago, it became a trend for online jokesters to take obscure comic panels and alter the dialogue to have Moon Knight shouting explicit, shocking, NSFW statements at other Marvel characters. One of these altered images became a viral sensation. It featured Marc Spector’s Moon Knight screaming at the vampire lord Dracula, demanding that the “big f—-ing nerd” give him his money.

    Speaking with Comic Book, Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater confirmed that he did, in fact, attempt to put a reference to this meme in the hit show. Unfortunately, the crudeness of the dialogue made it hard to fit organically into a relatively PG-13 series on Disney’s streaming service:

    I tried so hard. The problem is you can’t say f-ck on Disney+. And so you have to do a really awkward bleep where something breaks right when they say it. But it also felt to have him sort of recreate any part of that meme, but not do the part that people liked the most, which is the sort of inappropriate cursing. It was just kind of shining a spotlight on the fact that we couldn’t curse.

    Jeremy Slater

    Luckily for fans, Slater doesn’t think this will be the last chance someone gets to bring the meme to life. Moon Knight leaves plenty of room for the character to return later on down the line, and the upcoming introduction of Blade into the Marvel Cinematic Universe could open the door for an actual confrontation between Moon Knight and Dracula to occur in live-action. The writer elaborates on the opportunity:

    I still think there’s ways to get some of those memes in there. I’ve also said on the record that I would love to see Moon Knight going after Dracula at some point. And maybe Blade has that area staked out, no pun intended, but look, if Moon Knight goes after Dracula, I can assure you that someone will work that meme in there somewhere.

    Jeremy Slater

    Moon Knight is now streaming in it’s entirety on Disney+.

    Source: Comic Book

  • ‘Moon Knight’ Scribe On How Jake Lockley’s Absence, Relationship with Khonshu

    ‘Moon Knight’ Scribe On How Jake Lockley’s Absence, Relationship with Khonshu

    Over the course of its 6-week run, Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Moon Knight introduced audiences to Steven Grant, Marc Spector, Moon Knight, Mr. Knight and Khonshu, all of whom co-existed within the fractured mind of one man. Each episode of the series also built in teases to another one of Spector’s alters, Jake Lockley, but held off on delivering on those teases until the post-credit scene of the finale. In an interview with The Direct, Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater explains why they held of on introducing Jake, his relationship to Khonshu, the potential future of the character and more.

    As it turns out, Slater was aware right from the beginning that introducing Jake to the story would be too much to tackle in a short time:

    My initial pitch to Marvel was that three alters, three personalities sort of clashing with each other over the space of six hours is going to be way too chaotic and hectic. That it’s possible to tell a story like this and build a really strong emotional bond between two people, between Marc [Spector] and Steven [Grant], and really make the audience care about that relationship. But once you introduce a third into the fray, it becomes impossible. Like, Steven’s sacrifice at the end of 105 wouldn’t have any sort of weight to it if he had Jake there to sort of console him.

    Jeremy Slater

    Slater went on to say that Jake’s presence would take the attention off of the series’ key relationship: the one between Steven and Marc:

    So right from the beginning, I said [that] the first season could only concentrate on these two and we’ll find fun ways to tease the existence of Jake so that the fans recognize it. Marvel was really supportive of that approach right from the beginning. Then, in the course of our [writer’s] room, we started talking like, ‘what’s the best way to tease Jake? What’s going to really get the audience about a potential season two, or a movie, or another appearance down the line.

    Jeremy Slater

    In the comics, Jake has always been willing to do some dirty work, more so than Spector’s other alters. While that’s what we see of him here, Slater is quick to caution the fanbase from judging him too quickly on one act:

    The idea of bringing in Jake [Lockley], and not having him be evil, because I don’t—I’ve seen people on Twitter unhappy that they think Jake is sort of falling into sort of the evil-alter trope that you see in movies like Split and things like that. From my perspective, we don’t know nearly enough about Jake to make a determination like that… ultimately, whoever takes over the reins of the story next gets to decide that, but [also] from my perspective, the interesting question about Jake is, what is his relationship with Khonshu? Why is he so willing to do these horrible things in service of Khonshu. Why is he the one guy who sort of believes in Khonshu’s mission? What does he know that our heroes don’t? I think there’s a lot of questions like that that haven’t necessarily been answered.

    Jeremy Slater

    Slater continued, arguing that “Jake is bad” would be the LEAST interesting thing that could be done with the alter:

    I think that making Jake a generic evil guy would probably be the least exciting, or least interesting, direction to take that character in the future. So, I have no idea where Jake goes from here, and which writers and directors will bring him to life, but, I think there’s a lot of potentials. I think we’ve only teased the existence of this character at this point. We kind of still don’t know anything about him… I don’t think he’s evil. It’s Marvel’s decision, not mine, but I think calling him evil would be a mistake at this stage in the game.

    Jeremy Slater

    As Slater points out, and as is often the case with MCU writers, while he’s put a lot of thought into developing Jake, the next steps for the character are out of his hands. At this point, with Moon Knight’s next appearance still undetermined or unannounced, fans can’t even be sure they’ll see Jake again. Let’s hope if we do, whoever has taken over for Slater shows the same care for the character.

    Source: The Direct

  • Jeremy Slater Explains Why Werewolf by Night Didn’t Appear in ‘Moon Knight’

    Jeremy Slater Explains Why Werewolf by Night Didn’t Appear in ‘Moon Knight’

    Ahead of Moon Knight‘s debut, rumors indicated that a Werewolf by Night cameo would occur. The rumors seemed to only grow more rapid when a trailer for the long-awaited series showcased a Werewolf by Night Easter egg thanks to a framed comic book cover featuring the character fighting Moon Knight. Unfortunately, though, in the end, there was no appearance by the character, and for good reason.

    In a new interview with Comicbook, Moon Knight‘s head writer Jeremy Slater explained that while he might’ve included the character in a pitch, it never really went beyond that. “There weren’t discussions of doing Werewolf by Night per se, just because they had already had some plans for him, and Kevin [Feige] had an idea of how he wanted to use him,” he explained.

    While Marvel Studios has yet to officially announce its Werewolf by Night Halloween special that is in production, we do know that Gael Garcia Bernal (Mozart in the Jungle) will star in the special alongside Laura Donnelly (The Nevers). The special is being directed by composer Michael Giacchino, and production has been underway for a bit now and very little is known about the project outside of that. As for what could’ve been, however, Slater had a fun fight sequence he pitched for the character to show there’s plenty more to Moon Knight than we get to see in the series.

    “In my pitch, one of the images that I used was a shot of Moon Knight fighting a giant, 12-foot-tall werewolf with glowing eyes,” he says. “I was like, ‘Look, yes, Moon Knight is a street-level vigilante guy. He can go up against the purse snatchers and the drug runners and everything. But he’s also a monster hunter and that’s how he was introduced.’”

    Although it is unfortunate that Slater’s pitch didn’t work out, fans can rejoice knowing Werewolf by Night is expected to hit Disney+ later this year.

    Source: Comicbook.

  • ‘Moon Knight’ Ally Frenchie Was Nearly More than an Easter Egg in the Series

    ‘Moon Knight’ Ally Frenchie Was Nearly More than an Easter Egg in the Series

    Over the course of his Marvel Comics’ appearances, Marc Spector has traditionally chosen to keep his circle fairly small. Among those in that circle, there’s been very few constants, but Jean-Paul Duchamp, a fellow merc who has been buddies with Spector before his days as the Fist of Khonshu, is one of them.

    Over the years, Duchamp, who Spector calls “Frenchie”, became an integral part of Spector’s work as the Crescent Crusader and when word broke the Marvel Studios was developing a Moon Knight series, comic fans expected he’d be among the supporting characters helping out Oscar Issac’s Lunar Legionnaire. Unfortunately, however, other than a tiny Easter egg, Frenchie was nowhere to be found in the series. According to writer Jeremy Slater, in an interview with Comic Book’s Adam Barnhardt, the lack of Frenchie wasn’t because of a lack of interest in using the character.

    There were times where we had versions of Frenchie in the show. Because you look at it, Frenchie doesn’t make sense for those first two episodes because they’re all in London, they’re all from Steven’s perspective. And then we knew that once we were going to Egypt, we had to get them in the tomb pretty fast. And once wearing that final battle in the last two episodes, we’re spending most of that in the Egyptian underworld.

    Jeremy Slater, via Comic Book

    So with Frenchie crossed off the list for the early episodes and the later ones, it didn’t leave him much room at all, as Slater explained:

    So we knew episode three was really the only chance we had for a Frenchie cameo. And it kind of wound up of him just being a pilot just flying them in. And it felt like a bad use of the character. Like it wasn’t a cool or memorable version of Frenchie. It was just sort of like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s the pilot in the background.’ So we made the decision of like, when we do Frenchie, let’s do him right. Let’s give him an actual role and an actual character and something to do in the storyline. So I think teasing his name on the phone was our way of letting Frenchie’s fans know like, ‘Yes, he exists in this world. He definitely has some sort of business relationship-partnership with Marc.’ And hopefully that is something we get to explore in future stories.

    Jeremy Slater, via Comic Book

    Frenchie fans can take solace in the fact that Slater was actively looking to do the character a solid by giving him a chance to matter. Whether or not he’ll get that chance down the road is no certainty, however, as Marvel Studios is being very secretive about the future of Moon Knight. Here’s hoping we see Duchamp flying the Mooncopter somewhere down the road.

    Source: Comic Book

  • ‘Moon Knight’ Writer Speaks Out on Blade’s Rumored Appearance in the Series

    ‘Moon Knight’ Writer Speaks Out on Blade’s Rumored Appearance in the Series

    In the months leading up to Moon Knight’s streaming debut, the level of secrecy around the project remained impressive. Very few accurate leaks made their way off the set of the series, but there were plenty of wild rumors about characters that would appear in the show. Daredevil, Bruce Banner and Blade were all, at one point or another, mentioned by “scoopers” as potential guest stars on the show; however, as it turned out, not only did none of those characters show up, no other pre-established MCU characters did, making Moon Knight one of Marvel Studios’ most self-contained projects to date.

    With so much information out there, it’s hard to know what to trust and what to ignore. More and more often, Marvel Studios creators are being asked to help fans sort through the rubble of rumors. In an interview with Comic Book, Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater did just that. According to Slater, while Dane Whitman almost made an appearance in Marvel Studios Disney Plus streaming series Moon Knight, Blade was never in the mix.

    We’re told in advance which characters are a little bit off limits. And I think at the time we were cracking Moon Knight, they were also kind of trying to crack the Blade story and try to figure out what that was. And so I think they wanted to keep them separately.

    Jeremy Slater

    As it turned out, there was no need for the Black Knight, Blade or anyone else to show up alongside Moon Knight in the series, given the very personal nature of the fight Oscar Issac’s character was taking on. And, of course, when he needed help, he found it in the form of May Calamawy’s Scarlet Scarab, an old comic hero that Slater and director Mohamed Diab gave new life as Marvel Studios’ first Egyptian superhero. Now that the first chapter of his Marvel Studios story has been told, it’s possible that Moon Knight could show up anywhere and team up with anyone and, given his dalliances with the supernatural in the comics, Blade is just as good a bet as anything.

    Source: Comic Book

  • ‘Moon Knight’ Producers Board Marvel Studios’ ‘Fantastic Four’

    ‘Moon Knight’ Producers Board Marvel Studios’ ‘Fantastic Four’

    It looks like two of the producers behind Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight have boarded Fantastic Four.

    The news was revealed by Moon Knight‘s head writer, Jeremy Slater, in a new interview with Comicbook. “My execs on Moon Knight are the same guys who are running Fantastic Four, so we had a lot of talks about it,” Slater explained. “Grant and Nick are amazing executives. They’re going to find brilliant writers and brilliant directors. And they don’t need my stink anywhere near that project.”

    Grant Curtis and Nick Pepin will help to produce Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four reboot. Along with producing Moon Knight for Disney+, Curtis has produced a fair amount of Sam Raimi projects including his Spider-Man trilogy for Sony and Drag Me to Hell. While Pepin has been working on projects within the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2016 when he served as a production assistant on Captain America: Civil War.

    This exciting news comes weeks after Jon Watts exited the project due to a hectic schedule. Watts, of course, is coming off the Spider-Man trilogy for Marvel Studios and Sony. Had he stayed on for Fantastic Four, the director wouldn’t have had gotten much of a break between projects. The split was amicable and it is expected he’ll return for another Spider-Man film. As for who will take over directing duties for Watts, a new director has not yet been announced.

    Fantastic Four does not yet have a release date.

    Source: Comicbook.

  • Dane Whitman was Nearly in Moon Knight

    Dane Whitman was Nearly in Moon Knight

    After months of speculation regarding what the series might have in store, Moon Knight finished its run earlier this month with the reveal of Layla El-Faouly as a superhero and a third alter for the titular hero in Jake Lockley. However, as big as these moments might’ve been, it seems as though Moon Knight underwent a lot of changes throughout what looks to potentially be its first season. In a recent interview with Comicbook, series head writer Jeremy Slater revealed one Eternals character nearly appeared in the Disney+ series.

    As Slater explained to the outlet, they considered bringing in Whitman because of his experience in a history museum. Unfortunately, though, they opted not to include him as it would’ve been yet another appearance of Kit Harington‘s Whitman without him suiting up. “We talked about Dane Whitman a little bit just because he works in a history museum and that could be a natural interaction,” he explained. “My feeling was if we got Kit Harington to show up and he doesn’t suit up and he doesn’t kick ass, as a fan I’m pissed off.”

    If they would’ve been able to include an appearance by Harrington, Slater would’ve needed to ensure the character was able to don his suit. With a limited six-episode count, though, there simply wasn’t room to properly introduce Black Knight. “There was no space in those first two episodes to have him suit up and play Black Knight in the storyline, so we ultimately decided that it didn’t make sense to make this connection. But it was something we definitely talked about a couple days in the room.”

    When or how Harrington finally does suit up as Black Knight is still unknown. However, given the post-credits scene in Eternals, an appearance in Blade doesn’t seem unlikely.

    All episodes of Moon Knight are now streaming on Disney+.

    Source: Comicbook.

  • Disney+ Delays Release of ‘Moon Knight’s BTS ‘Assembled’ Special

    Disney+ Delays Release of ‘Moon Knight’s BTS ‘Assembled’ Special

    It looks like one of the Assembled episodes has been delayed, as Moon Knight’s was originally going to release today. Still, Disney has seemingly made the decision o postpone it to 25th May 2022. This delay marks the second time it has happened for any Marvel Studios shorts that take a peek behind the curtain on how these projects are done. The same happened with their last Disney+ series Hawkeye, which was delayed into February instead of its initial January release. Surprisingly, we also never got a poster release for the series, which has also been a tradition up to this point.

    There’s been a surprising development of these projects being turned into individual episodes rather than having them as part of the initial Assembled series. The change was made with Hawkeye, which may have seen a spike in viewership as a standalone episode rather than bundled with the series due to the sporadic release schedules depending on when the films and series are released.

    Here’s hoping that they do eventually fold them back into the Assembled series at a later date for those wanting to catch up on everything they missed. The upcoming episode on Moon Knight also will include a particular “roundtable discussion” featuring the directors of the series. We initially saw the Disney Gallery: The Making of The Mandalorian, which kicked off the idea of mini-documentaries based on the popular series. We’ll see if they start promoting the special as we near its new release date in a few weeks.

    Source: What’s On Disney+

  • ‘Moon Knight’ Originally Included a Kang Reference

    ‘Moon Knight’ Originally Included a Kang Reference

    Loki set up the big bad of the multiversal conflict in He Who Remains, who is actually a Variant of Kang the Conqueror. We did get a good look at a statue of Jonathan Majors wearing the iconic look from the comics. We know he’ll make an appearance in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp sequel but was surprisingly absent in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Though, it seems that he was originally going to be referenced in Moon Knight according to head writer Jeremy Slater.

    There was a line in the script, and I don’t know if it survived. I can’t remember. But there was a line where, I think Steven, is sort of rattling off some Egyptian history that he has locked away in his brain, and he did mention Rama-Tut. I don’t remember if that scene, if that line is still in the show or not. But it was that small, it was him mentioning a list of famous pharaohs or something like that. But that was Nick Pepin, one of our executives at Marvel, that was his idea to sort of slip that in there as a fun Easter egg.

    Jeremy Slater

    There was a visual reference that was still included that seemed like it was taken from the comics, but you don’t get a good enough look at what it is. The fact we may explore Kang’s time as Rama-Tut would be quite interesting, and hopefully, we’ll see a lot more of his many Variants in the future, as He Who Remains was only one of many. For now, we’ll have to wait but Kang’s future role in the MCU is definitely going to be an exciting one.

    Source: The Direct