Executive producer Grant Curtis recently claimed that next week’s Disney Plus debutant Moon Knight isn’t attached to the mainline Marvel Cinematic Universe, only for a new trailer to arrive shortly afterwards that featured an Easter Egg directly connected to The Falcon and the Winter Solider.
Of course, we understand what he means, with Oscar Isaac’s Marc Spector set to stand on his own two feet across the entirety of his six-episode run, without having to rely on cameo appearances and surprise guest stars to tether the narrative to the rest of Kevin Feige’s interconnected mythology.
It’s guaranteed to happen eventually, though, with the MCU in a constant state of overlap across film and television, just don’t expect it to involve Moon Knight quite yet. To that end, the leading man explained in an interview with IGN that he looked to Iron Man for inspiration when it came to finding his character’s place in the world.
“For me, my favorite Marvel film is still the first Iron Man. You know, it’s the one that feels like it’s breaking through in some way, and it has such an indelible performance, [where] Downey comes in and just owns every minute that he’s on screen. It also feels quite adult, and it’s messy, ‘cause it’s the first one, you know? So I like that a lot. [Moon Knight] was a similar approach, where we’re building this thing from the ground up.
It’s still in the universe, but that’s not part of the plot, that’s not part of the story – it rests on its own terms, and it’s really an internal exploration of this person. So this person is not connected to any of his reality that is happening – that’s part of his problem, whether it’s Marvel or not. So it really just tries to get into the skin of this guy.”
Moon Knight is a standalone story that still takes place within the parameters of MCU canon, then, which is the smartest approach to take for a relatively obscure figure that many casual audiences may not be familiar with, and there’s going to be plenty of opportunities for crossovers in the future.