Marvel Confirms the MCU Had a Moon Knight Before Oscar Isaac's Character

04/07/2022 05:22 pm EDT

With the new Moon Knight series on Disney+, Marvel Studios has introduced a brand new hero to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marc Spector, one of the personalities played by Oscar Isaac, can summon the powers of an Egyptian god names Khonshu in order to become the Moon Knight. Spector is the character fans have long known as Moon Knight in Marvel Comics, but the version of the vigilante featured on the show existed before Marc Spector ever allowed Khonshu into his head.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for the second episode of Marvel Studios' Moon Knight! Continue reading at your own risk...

The conflict between Marc/Steven/Khonshu and Arthur Harrow, the extremist played by Ethan Hawke. Harrow is trying to resurrect Ammit and pass judgement on the people of the world, but she was not the first god he ever served. As we learn in the second episode of Moon Knight, which was released on Disney+ this week, Arthur previously belonged to Khonshu.

Marc is an avatar for Khonshu, meaning that he was chosen by the god to be his eyes, ears, and presence on Earth. Each of the Egyptian deities has one; they always have. In the new episode, Arthur reveals that he was Khonshu's previous avatar, so he knows quite a lot about how the god operates and what he might be hoping to achieve.

We don't yet know exactly what caused Khonshu to choose Marc after he parted ways with Arthur. What we do know, however, is that Arthur has more information about Khonshu than anyone initially thought. An already formidable adversary just became an even bigger challenge to Steven, Marc, and Khonshu.

"Yeah, obviously, Jeremy Slater adapted this material and there's something about being tasked with giving a comic book character's origin story," director Justin Benson recently said of the series. "It's so interesting, in the sense of, Moon Knight's been around for 50 years, that's actually a relatively young superhero, but it still requires, in 50 years, that the origin story be retold several times. That's just comic books, that's how they work. They don't work in direct continuity." 

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