The next installment in the massive MCU Phase 4 storyline drops on March 30th at Disney Plus. It’s the mysterious Moon Knight TV show that will tell us the origin story of a brand new superhero. That is what’s so great about Moon Knight, actually. We’re getting a hero who has never appeared in the MCU before, so we have yet to find out how he fits in with the rest of the Avengers. That’s to say we have no idea whether Marvel will stick to the comics when it comes to Moon Knight’s powers and origin story. Not to mention that we’ve hardly had any leaks about the upcoming TV show.
Oscar Isaac, who plays the titular character(s), has teased that the Moon Knight team was at liberty to take very weird risks. That’s another interesting tidbit about the TV show, but it doesn’t qualify as a significant plot leak. That said, there’s new info that helps explain Moon Knight’s origin story and his powers. Mind you, some spoilers will follow below.
Moon Knight isn’t one of the most popular Marvel characters out there. Of course, that doesn’t make the TV show any less exciting. If anything, Marvel has proven time and again that it can take lesser-known superheroes and turn them into massive attractions. Marvel used Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) to build the MCU from the ground up. At the time, no one other than Marvel comic book fans knew about Iron Man.
Since then, we got to meet plenty of superheroes that were unfamiliar to moviegoers who don’t read comics. The Guardians, Black Panther, Shang-Chi, and the Eternals are just a few origin stories that Marvel delivered in recent years.
But what makes Moon Knight special is that it’ll be the first Disney Plus show centered around a brand new superhero.
The origin story
Thankfully, we don’t have to wait until March 30th to find out what sort of story Moon Knight will be. A recent article in Disney Latino that went largely unnoticed addresses the upcoming TV show.
Disney Latino tackles Moon Knight’s origin story and powers that we’ll see on display. It also reveals the other important angle of the story. Marvel will touch on mental health again, a theme it explored last year in WandaVision. This time around, we’ll be looking at dissociative identity disorder, a medical condition that the titular character suffers from.
Steven Grant is a friendly gift shop clerk when he doesn’t turn into Marc Spector or Moon Knight. That’s right; Oscar Isaac plays these three characters — from the blog:
Grant has dissociative identity disorder, a psychological pathology he discovers after having flashes from another life. From there the mercenary Marc Spector begins to manifest, a parallel identity in him.
Spector is a former military man and former CIA agent, serving as a mercenary when he meets the deity who will give him the Moon Knight powers.
Khonshu is the Egyptian God who negotiates with Marc to become the bearer of his powers on Earth. Per The Cosmic Circus, all of this implies that Marvel will stay faithful to the Moon Knight origin story from the comics.
Moon Knight’s powers
Disney Latino also tackled specific Moon Knight powers in the post. The superhero is “an Olympic-level athlete capable of performing complex acrobatics.” Furthermore, he’s a talented combat strategist and can handle a variety of weapons.
More interestingly, the influence of the Moon will directly impact his abilities. The phases of the Moon can increase his strength, resistance, and reflexes.
Finally, Moon Knight also has prophetic visions about future events.
All these tidbits are exciting not just for the Moon Knight origin story we’ll experience in this first season. But let’s also not forget that Moon Knight is part of a much bigger narrative — the MCU.
It’ll be interesting to see how this superhero interacts with the other Avengers. And hopefully, this origin story will also give us a few relationships with other well-known MCU superheroes. At least, that’s what rumors have been teasing.
