One of the ways that Moon Knight stands out from other MCU projects is by not acknowledging the larger Marvel Universe. In other words, there are no references to the Avengers or the fact that half the universe turned to dust for five years. But the show came close to featuring some of the franchise’s other new additions. While speaking with The Direct, head writer Jeremy Slater revealed that several Eternals characters almost had cameos in the series.
In Slater’s early Moon Knight drafts, one of the episodes opened with a flashback scene in ancient Egypt, where Khonshu’s then-Avatar encounters some of the immortal superheroes we met in Chloé Zhao’s film last fall. Unfortunately, bringing the scene to life proved to be too costly, even by Disney standards.
“I tried very hard to get the Eternals into the show, just because I’m buddies with Kumail Nanjiani… I want[ed] some Kingo,” said Slater. “At one point, there was a flashback on the page that sort of showed one of Khonshu’s Avatars back in ancient Egypt, sort of dealing with Ammit being locked away. And Alexander the Great, and all of that stuff. You sort of saw this Avatar team-up with the Eternals. It was a really fun scene. But again, it was so massively expensive to recreate Ancient Egypt. To sort of bring in 3 or 4 of the Eternals to have this big action sequence.”
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Slater’s remarks echo what director Mohamed Diab let slip in an earlier interview with Variety. Although he wouldn’t name names, Diab claimed that the filmmakers planned other crossovers for Moon Knight’s “very first” and “very end” scenes. But in the end, they decided against this, believing the show didn’t need to follow the traditional Marvel formula to the letter.
“It was one of those things where it was a very fun scene,” continued Slater. “And it would have been a great cold open to one of the episodes. But it also would have had to come out of our budget somewhere else, and probably would have hurt our finale along the way. So, that was the cameo I had to cut. It hurt, but it was also the right thing to do for the show, and I think everyone sort of collectively agreed. There’s plenty of time in the future to team this guy up with other characters in the MCU and start building these connections; let’s not force something just because the other shows have all had it.”
All six episodes of Moon Knight are currently streaming on Disney+.
Would you like to have seen the Eternals make an appearance in the series? Tell us what you think in the comment section below!
Recommended Reading: Moon Knight by Lemire & Smallwood
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