Hawkeye season one was wrapped up in a bow, but Marvel fans are hungrily anticipating their next meal at Disney Plus’s table of superhero fare. The streaming service has announced several titles, but with no release dates firmed up as yet, fans are betting on what they can look forward to next, and most agree that it’s Moon Knight.
Although Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Secret Invasion are all slated for release this year, the footage released on November 12 of last year during Disney + Day garnered an impressive amount of chatter and anticipation online.
Moon Knight is one of the more iconoclastic characters in Marvel comics. Originally conceived of as a villain/foil for the Marvel 1970s horror title, Werewolf by Night – another property rumored to be released on Disney Plus this year – the character was later reintroduced as a costumed vigilante patrolling the streets of New York City. In his early existence, the character was often lambasted as merely a pale Marvel imitation of DC comics’ Batman – much like Bruce Wayne; Moon Knight had a millionaire alter ego, Steven Grant. It wasn’t until writer Doug Moench leaned into one of the character’s primary gimmicks – namely, that the character had not just one, but three alter egos – as a manifestation of an actual dissociative identity disorder aka DID, that the Moon Knight began to gain a loyal and ardent fanbase.
Many fans have been hoping for years to see the character in some incarnation of the MCU, and now that their wish has come true and it’s down to the wire, they’re experiencing quite a few pangs of anticipation.
According to Screenrant, the new streaming series is “expected to be a psychological thriller that deals heavily with the character’s mental health and dissociative identity disorder. The show will also feature Ethan Hawke as a villain whose identity has yet to be revealed.”
Last month, Cinema Reviewed revealed that Moon Knight was farther along in post-production than She-Hulk and speculated that “February 2022 would be the probable release date.” Both Marvel production wrapped on shooting last year. Given the amount of CGI that will be necessary to transform 5′ 4″ Tatiana Maslany into a 6′ 7″ gamma-ray mutant, it’s not surprising that the more mundane Moon Knight may make it out of post first.
According to Marca, we know that producer Paul Fiege has said Moon Knight will consist of six 40 to 50-minute episodes. If the series does debut in February, fans could expect a trailer to drop any week in January. But as yet, the release date continues to be elusive. There’s no doubt that the rumors will keep flying until Disney finally gives the fans what they want.