Moon Knight Episode 5 was truly an emotional rollercoaster for Marvel fans, taking us on a dark ride into the history of Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac). (SPOILERS FOLLOW!) That ride included a stop at the core traumatic event in Marc’s life: the death of his brother Randall. When Marc and Randall were kids, Marc goaded his brother into going to play in a cave, even though it was raining and their mother had warned them against it. The water ended up rising too fast and Randall drowned – or so we’re left to think. The moment of “Ro, Ro’s” death wasn’t shown, and some Marvel fans have wanted to know why.
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“It’s a very difficult thing, storytelling-wise. I want to see what’s going on, but I don’t want any light there…. To create a mood and make it seem appropriately dark. It’s a feeling of mystery,” Moon Knight cinematographer Gregory Middleton explains. “When you go in the water, sometimes you go under it and you may never come out. Hearing [Steve] panic and call out to his brother is like – I’m tearing up just thinking about it now. You just wanna make sure you capture that.”
For clear context: it’s not that Marvel fans are chomping at the bit to see a scene of a child drowning – they have good reason for being suspicious, based on Marvel Comics lore. In the comics, Randall Spector grew up resenting Marc for always outshining him; as adult mercenaries, Randall betrayed Marc and the two had a fight that left Randall broken and near death.
Randall watched Marc as Moon Knight from the shadows, allying himself with other foes of Moon Knight (Sandahl Swan) and eventually becoming both a serial killer (Hatchet-Man) and a competing avatar of Khonshu (Shadowknight). So, since we didn’t technically see Randall die in the show, a lot of fans think the MCU is setting up a possible big twist reveal like the comics:
“It was shot in a way that you’re not going to see what happened to kids,” Moon Knight dierctor Mohamed Diab explains. “Yes, I want to push you as much as we can, but we’re not going to go there. But you’re going to feel it through what you see Steven goes through. The way he is stuck there and screaming to those kids. It’s such a haunting moment. And then you don’t see what happens, but you see the aftermath. I love the storytelling in that [moment], the cuts and what you leave and what you see. That’s scene is one of my favorite scenes, for sure.”
While Diab’s explanation of not wanting to go too far with a child death scene makes sense (not really “Disney+” is it?), it is also, admittedly, a convenient side-step of the additional reason that Marvel Studios didn’t want to go down that path. After all, we never saw a funeral scene of Randall in a coffin or any other firm indicator of his death. Marvel Studios is known to not completely close doors to possible future stories. So…
Moon Knight is streaming on Disney+.
