Moon Knight Disney+: What We Know So Far

Your days are numbered, evildoers... a very different kind of hero is coming to the MCU.

After years of speculation over whether the character would ever find his way to screens, it's finally happening: Marc Spector, a.k.a. Moon Knight, is getting his own series on the Disney+ streaming platform, as revealed at Disney's D23 Expo. First appearing in the pages of Marvel comics in 1975, the hero has long been a cult favorite, and is sometimes seen as Marvel's answer to Batman. A former Marine and mercenary, Spector's life changed during a mission in Egypt, in which he was nearly killed — but found a second chance thanks to the Egyptian god Khonshu, who offered to spare Spector in exchange for becoming the god's vengeful, crime-fighting earthly avatar.

Returning to America, Spector invested his ill-gotten earnings from his mercenary days, turning it over into a considerable fortune, which he used to outfit himself with gadgetry and equipment helpful for tracking down and beating the snot out of criminals. He receives funding and street-level assistance from an unexpected source: different iterations of himself, for Spector suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Recent takes on the character have even posited that this disorder may be Moon Knight's only true superpower — and you may now be getting the idea that Marvel Studios, who will produce the series, has a heck of a lot of material to work with in bringing the hero to the small screen. 

While details are understandably a bit scant at this point, we do know that the series will be shepherded to the screen by Jeremy Slater, who was hired in November 2019 to develop the series and lead its writers' room. Slater has some interesting qualifications; he filled a similar role on Netflix's hit Dark Horse comics adaptation The Umbrella Academy and the acclaimed Fox series The Exorcist, and his feature screenplays include the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot (which, by all accounts, would have been a far different film if not for intense studio interference) and the Netflix manga adaptation Death Note.

Slater seems like a solid choice to bring us the first live-action adaptation of one of Marvel's most intriguing heroes — and one whose time to shine, so to speak, can't come soon enough. Here's everything we know so far about Moon Knight.

The Moon Knight reveal was one of the most shocking surprises of this year's D23; during Marvel Television's now-defunct partnership with Netflix, fans had been clamoring for a series featuring the hero — one which could offer a dark, violent take along the lines of the streamer's Daredevil series. Moon Knight, after all, has no qualms about seriously injuring or even killing his adversaries, and it's easy to see how the character could have found a home among Netflix's Marvel offerings (which also included the best live-action take yet on another famously bloodthirsty Marvel hero, the Punisher). The Disney+ series will likely tone down some of the character's more violent tendencies, as the platform is going for a more family-friendly vibe in its original offerings. 

Unfortunately, we don't yet know when that will happen, as no release date was announced at the D23 panel. However, we can gather a clue from the fact that at least four MCU-set series are in the pipeline first. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will debut in the fall of 2020, to be followed by Loki in early 2021, WandaVision during the same time frame, and Hawkeye in the fall of that year. Taking all of that into account, it's unlikely that Moon Knight will debut any sooner than early 2022.

Of course, since production is in its very early stages, we also have no official word on the cast of Moon Knight. That won't stop the entire internet from speculating, however; heck, Marvel die-hards have been fan-casting Moon Knight for years, and now that we know a series is in the works, said fan-casting is certain to reach a fever pitch in the coming weeks.

One interesting possibility for Moon Knight that has been floated early and often: Keanu Reeves. Ever since Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige's recent revelation that the House of Heroes had sought to cast Reeves in some capacity in virtually every project they've ever undertaken, fans have been falling all over themselves attempting to nail down the perfect MCU role for the star. The notion of Reeves taking on the role of Spector is one that has gotten a lot of traction, with at least one source — YouTuber TVO, who presides over the Lords of the Long Box video series — claiming that if Reeves wants the part, it's his.

While Reeves has certainly proven his action bonafides as the star of the insanely popular John Wick series, it seems likely that, at 54 years old, the star may be a little long in the tooth to be considered, especially if Marvel intends to keep Moon Knight around in the MCU for more than a few years. For now, the question of who will fill Spector's cape and cowl remains an open one.

While there is likewise no official word on Moon Knight's plot, it seems likely that it will be an origin story — and, as we alluded to earlier, Moon Knight's is one of the craziest in all of comics. Spector's mercenary days, his fateful Egyptian mission, and his subsequent return to the States to take on his heroic identity all seem like ground that's likely to be covered — as is his struggle with (and bizarre reliance on) his dissociative identity disorder, assuming that the series will maintain some faithfulness to the source material.

In the comics, Spector has two distinct personalities who assist him in his superheroic activities: millionaire Steven Grant, whose business endeavors supply Moon Knight with necessary funding, and cab driver Jake Lockley, who acts as the hero's eyes and ears on the street. Additionally, recent Marvel Comics runs have suggested that Moon Knight's superhuman strength and reflexes aren't actually bestowed by an Egyptian god at all; rather, they may be all in Spector's head, derived solely from his disorder. While Hollywood has often come under fire for its dramatized and inaccurate depictions of DID, we've got to admit that if Disney+ leans into this aspect of the character, it could make for an absolutely bananas superhero story — one quite unlike anything we've seen from the MCU so far. 

We can only speculate as to the period setting of Moon Knight, but we do know that so far, Marvel's Phase 4 slate — with a couple of notable exceptions — will be focused on events taking place in the MCU after the Infinity Saga. The Black Widow feature is said to take place between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War, while the Disney+ series Loki will feature Tom Hiddleston's trickster god (the version that escaped with the Mind Stone during Avengers: Endgame) traipsing around all of human history, influencing historical events like a malevolent Forrest Gump. The streamer's series WandaVision is also said to take place at least partially in the 1950s, although an emerging consensus suggests that Scarlet Witch's powers of reality manipulation will come into play, perhaps with the creation of a pocket universe in which she and her android beau Vision can live happily ever after.

Given that Moon Knight has not received so much as a single passing reference in the MCU thus far, it's safe to assume that his adventures will be set in the post-Endgame period. We'll have to wait for official confirmation on this, but it sure seems like if it were not the case, the presence of a white-garbed vigilante beating the absolute crap out of every criminal in New York City would probably have drawn the attention of an Avenger or two at some point.

Sadly, with no cast, release date, or plot details yet in place, it will probably be quite some time before we see a trailer for Moon Knight. It may not even be until next year's San Diego Comic-Con or D23 2020 that we'll get a glimpse of the series — if then. Marvel Studios has about a billion projects on its plate at the moment, and Moon Knight is in very early pre-production.

This doesn't mean, however, that we won't get more details about the show relatively soon. Marvel Studios' Disney+ series will be big-budget, full-scale productions on par with its movies, and as such, they'll require a considerable time investment from all involved. The studio will want to lock down Moon Knight's lead actor sooner rather than later — not to mention its writers and showrunner(s) — so we're likely to see plenty of news breaking around the series in the coming months.

Of course, the ball can't start rolling soon enough for Moon Knight fans, who have literally been waiting for this for years. But at least we now know that there is a ball, and the moment it receives its first gentle push, we'll be there to report any and all details.