The latest MCU TV series has come to an end, but Moon Knight could have been very different according to its director Mohamed Diab. Apparently, Marvel bosses were keen to include a couple of MCU crossovers in the sci-fi series, but these rumoured cameos were eventually cut from the final product before it hit the streaming service Disney Plus.
We all know by now how important the various connections in the MCU timeline are to the continued success of the Marvel machine, with characters from all over the comic book universe sharing screentime in one another’s Marvel movies (and now television shows). But, perhaps to the benefit of Moon Knight, no such links were formed for the series.
Diab revealed to Variety recently, that he was very aware of how the MCU works, and understood that the higher-ups at the studio were going to want some little references or cameo appearances to tie Moon Knight in with the wider Marvel world. Diab, however, was not keen on the idea, and pushed back.
“We had the freedom to place [Moon Knight] whenever. I want to tell you the very first scene, there was a crossover, and the very end scene, there was a crossover,” Diab revealed. “But as the story developed and we kept changing the scripts, we felt like, ‘We don’t need that.’ All of us. It was a collective decision.”
“I think they decided, ‘You know what, the surprise is that there isn’t [any connections], and what’s going to make this show unique is it doesn’t need anything else,'” Diab said. “The best compliment we get on the show is when people tell us, ‘This doesn’t feel like a Marvel show. It feels like a standalone show that feels more dramatic, more dark, grounded.’ I feel like we succeeded in bringing Marvel more to our corner.”
Diab didn’t say who was planned for the Moon Knight crossover appearances, but head writer Jeremy Slater told the House of R Podcast that the series almost included a romance storyline involving Echo, AKA Maya Lopez, from the Hawkeye series.
To be honest, we’re pretty glad there was no cameos or explicit nods to the wider MCU in Moon Knight, . It’s refreshing for Marvel to just let a character have their own story, and it really worked this time around.