Moon Knight Producer on Character's Past With Bushman, MCU Future

Moon Knight introduced the world to a brand new type of super hero, one with alternate personalities and identities and a complex history. In fact, the history which Marc Spector was teased to have within the Moon Knight series on Disney+ falls in line with the character's origin story on the pages of Marvel Comics. Although it was not shown in the series, references to Marc Spector acting as a hired mercenary on a mission where an innocent archeologist is killed despite Marc refusing to carry out the act came into play. This lead to Marc being left for dead by Bushman, ultimately being rescued by Khonshu with the powers of Moon Knight. As it turns out, Bushman was considered to have been more than a namedrop in the Moon Knight series. 

"Absolutely. yeah. We talked Bushman. We talked to everybody," Moon Knight executive producer Grant Curtis said on the Phase Zero podcast when asked if the series considered introducing Bushman. "What we did do, one of the initial tasks, was to go through and read every comic that he ever appeared in. So, we were reading West Coast Avengers. We were reading all the different Moon Knights and trying to see is there an issue that we want to absolutely do as our series? And what we found out is that there wasn't a particular issue or a particular run. It was really those tones and themes that have been written so amazingly over the decades that we wanted to shine a spotlight on. And you guys know those tones and themes cause I know you like the comic. But it is that globetrotting action adventure, very Indiana Jones-esque. It is the Egyptology inherent in Marc Spector and Khonshu's origin story. It's the spooky grittiness that makes Marc Spector in Moon Knight and Steven Grant and Jake Lockley, bless you, sing. And so cool. And it's also the comedy that's in this series."

Bushman is one of Moon Knight's villains in comics and it sounds like he may be a part of the character's future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, famously having his face cut off and offering a haunting appearance. The show's writer Jeremy Slater shed some light on the character, as far as he is concerned. "I don't know if he still has his face. That's a good question," Slater said. "He's definitely still out there. And I think at some point in Moon Knight's journey, you're going to have to involve Bushman."

Slater, a fan of the comics, really did want to see Bushman play a role. "I tried very hard to get him in there in a couple different versions of Bushman. And there were just a lot of reasons why he wasn't great as an antagonist for this first story," the writer said. "The main one was just that we had to start from Steven's perspective. That was something I really believed in right from the beginning is that you're never going to make people fall in love with Marc, unless they fall in love with Steven first."

As for Season 2 of Moon Knight, Curtis does not have news on that front just yet. The producer is headed to the Fantastic Four movie following this work on the Disney+ series. Season 2 news is a "Kevin [Feige] question," according to Curtis. "I want to see wherever that character lands. It's an amazing character, written and drawn so well over the years, embodied by Oscar on screen. Like I said, I'll push all my chips in on that. I'll go there."

Are you hoping to see Bushman show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Share your thoughts in the comment section! Moon Knight is available now on Disney+. Phase Zero's full interview with Grant Curtis is available now on all major podcast platforms.