Moon Knight Could Have Done A Lot More To Set Up Thor: Love And Thunder
Marvel Studios' "Moon Knight" went out of its way to distinguish itself from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe by largely standing on its own, in a way no Marvel property has done since the original "Iron Man." Aside from the briefest Easter egg for "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," the series avoids all references to the Avengers, Thanos, the Blip, and other storyline details fans normally expect. It's an unusual choice for a cinematic universe that has prided itself on creating connective tissue through almost every project, especially since Phase 4 has produced some of the most crossover-focused content yet.
That said, it appears that Marvel certainly floated ideas to connect it to the wider universe, earlier in the development process. For one, the show's production team briefly considered featuring a few characters from "Eternals" in an ancient Egypt flashback sequence that ultimately did not make the cut. Meanwhile, as Marvel Studios and Disney turn their attention to releasing "Thor: Love and Thunder" this summer, many fans wondered if the introduction of numerous gods in "Moon Knight" might've led to a cameo of future Thor villain Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale).
Obviously, Gorr didn't appear, and wasn't referenced. As it turns out, though, the "Moon Knight" team did indeed have a similar thought process at one point in production.
Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater considered referencing Gorr the God Butcher
In a recent interview with The Direct, "Moon Knight" head writer Jeremy Slater said that the show's production team considered adding references to "Thor: Love and Thunder" during its six-episode run, but because many of the MCU's Phase 4 films and television series had their release dates shuffled throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to drop any of these notes.
Slater told The Direct that when "Moon Knight" entered production, they weren't sure when the series would actually run on Disney+, or when the new "Thor" would necessarily release. Slater said that they wrote different versions of the script that would have referenced the new "Thor" movie in different ways, whether "Moon Knight" released before or after Chris Hemsworth swung the hammer. "So there were different versions of the script where the Gods would sort of talk about, 'This thing with Gorr the God Butcher just happened, and now we've got this new problem,'" Slater told The Direct. "And then there were other versions of the script where they sort of talked about, 'We're hearing rumors [that] Gods are dying, this is not the right time to get involved.' Like we tried to have our cake and eat it too."
Of course, "Moon Knight" wound up standing on its own without any references to the Thor mythos, though at this point, it is worth pondering whether Christian Bale's god-butchering villain might come after the Egyptian gods this summer. As far as Moon Knight and his three alters, Marvel Studios is currently keeping mum about where Oscar Isaac might pop up next. Most likely, the character will become more closely tied to the MCU at large wherever Marc, Steven, and Jake do pop up next.