Marvel’s Moon Knight first premiered on Disney+ in 2022 and starred Oscar Isaac as the titular character, the complex and troubled avatar of the Egyptian god of the moon, Khonshu. The series follows Isaac as Marc Spector, a deeply traumatized man with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and his alter Steven Grant and Jake Lockley, as they grapple with each other’s existence and their service to Khonshu. Though Spector and his alters faced a slew of trials, many internal, they spent the series taking down Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) a monk-like cult leader devoted to another Egyptian god, Ammit, with designs for world domination.
Though Ethan Hawke was praised for his portrayal of Harrow in the Marvel series, series creator Jeremy Slater originally had another idea for Marc Spector’s on-screen adversary. Speaking exclusively to ComicBook, the writer behind Moon Knight’s entrance into the MCU shared who else they had in mind to take on the complicated hero, as well as if we can expect a second season of the series, and if he’d be involved.
Slater Initially Had Raoul Bushman as Moon Knight’s Nemesis
Slater revealed that the Moon Knight we all watched on Disney+ was very different than the series he originally wrote. “Ultimately, [Marvel] went in a different direction and the director put together his own team of writers.” He doesn’t claim to have any hard feelings regarding the process, continuing, “You know when you are coming in to play in such a big sandbox that you are…borrowing someone else’s toys to play with for a short amount of time and, at the end of the day, they don’t belong to you. You know that going in, so it wasn’t a surprise at all.”
RELATED: Moon Knight Creator Reveals What Needs to Happen for Season 2 of MCU Series
In the Moon Knight comics, Bushman is a deadly effective mercenary and Marc Spector’s estranged partner. He’s generally regarded to be Moon Knight‘s arch nemesis and makes for a fascinating foil to Marc as Bushman is more aggressive and even more morally grey than the Marvel hero. However, cutting Bushman from the series didn’t come from the creative change of guard, but rather due to an inability to distinguish the character from another iconic Marvel mercenary, Erik Killmonger.
“The goal was if Marc Spector was the Avatar of Khonshu, we were going to take Bushman and make him the avatar of a different Egyptian god and let them duke it out,” Slater told us. Ultimately, the writers did something similar with Harrow, making him a disciple of Ammit. Slater went on, “The problem we kept running into was Black Panther had just come out and Michael B. Jordan was so damn good as Killmonger in that movie, that he casts such a big shadow…that everything we wrote wound up feeling a little derivative.”
Moon Knight Season 2 Up in the Air, Slater Not Likely to Return
Though there’s arguably been enough time since Black Panther for Bushman to fill distinct from Killmonger for the character to appear in a second season of Moon Knight, the character’s future in the MCU is still uncertain.
“If there is another Moon Knight, the ball is in Kevin Feige and Oscar Isaac’s court,” Slater claimed. “Once Kevin figures out the best way to use that character, what is the right story and who are the right storytellers to bring that to life, I would be shocked if we didn’t see him again at some point.”
Slater was quick to add that he was speculating as a fan about more Moon Knight in the MCU. He isn’t interested in returning to the IP and television, given that he’s focusing on transitioning into directing feature films. Even so, we hope Slater is right. Moon Knight was a brilliantly nuanced series that delved into trauma, mental illness, and grief with aplomb. Isaac was overlooked for his layered performance as Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley, all while kicking butt as all Marvel protagonists are wont to do. If there was a second season, a face off between Isaac’s Moon Knight and Bushman would make for riveting television.
Moon Knight is now streaming on Disney+.
The post Moon Knight Creator Reveals Series Originally Featured a Much Different Villain (And Why They Got Cut) appeared first on ComicBook.com.
