Since Moon Knight first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the character has yet to make an appearance in any other live-action project, but What If…? did present a way for Oscar Isaac‘s character to return. Since the MCU began in 2008, one of the driving forces behind these movies has been the interconnected nature of all the heroes who appear. Just like in the comics, there are plenty of chances for heroes to team up and fight together. This led to hit films like The Avengers, which saw Earth’s Mightiest Heroes face off against world-ending threats. However, some heroes, such as the street-level fighters and those in the depths of space, have proven decidedly more difficult to integrate in a way that feels natural.
But despite the hurdle of finding ways to bring all the heroes together, Marvel’s What If…?, the MCU’s most experimental entry, has paved the way for how the heroes could team up in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. Oscar Isaac’s MCU debut received a lot of praise for the grounded and gritty feel of the series, Moon Knight. The show had a distinct style compared to other entries in the mega franchise, which was refreshing for fans of Marvel, although it presented a different challenge when it comes to bringing Moon Knight into the fold with other heroes. Moon Knight is a lot more intense and violent than many of the other heroes, which means he could struggle to fit in.
Three years after the first season was released, I have been convinced that Moon Knight season 2 must be made thanks to Daredevil: Born Again. What If…? served as Oscar Isaac’s first appearance in the MCU outside his own show, and it saw Moon Knight team up with the Avengers, led by Sam Wilson’s Captain America. The team also consisted of other heroes introduced in the Multiverse Saga, including Shang-Chi, Monica Rambeau as Photon, and the Red Guardian, to name a few. This team-up is the first time several heroes have fought together since Avengers: Endgame in 2019, and it proves that the desire for a major team-up is alive and well among the fanbase.
However, the way this Avengers team is presented is nearly impossible to adapt to live-action. While one branch of the Multiverse may have these heroes working together and donning large mech suits that can combine to assemble some sort of mega Avenger, the Sacred Timeline is not a place where giant robots are seen flying around all that often. Yes, technology is advanced, with gifted inventors pushing the limits of what is possible with tech, but the heroes don’t all rely on machines to fight the villains. One aspect of this comes down to simple logistics, with the MCU movies featuring an array of different heroes who each have unique abilities.
It would be costly, time-consuming, and challenging to create huge mecha-Avengers for the movies, but it would also appear quite boring, with heroes like Moon Knight not getting an opportunity to showcase their powers in a meaningful way, while they rely on a machine to fight. The MCU will instead feature these heroes in all their glory, using their own powers, and creating interesting combos as unexpected heroes join forces. But in order to get to that point, the MCU needs to set the stage for heroes from across the Multiverse to step into the same arena.
The stakes need to be high enough that a hero from a distant planet, and the various street-level heroes like Daredevil and Spider-Man all rally together to take on the opposition. In What If…?, that threat was an army of monstrous mutated, gamma-irradiated Hulks. This was enough to get the best and brightest heroes on Earth to fight together, despite their differences.
Moon Knight season 2 recently received a new update, which was not the best, and the Oscar Isaac MCU series taking so long to return is shocking. When it comes to the live-action MCU, it appears that the only thing big enough on the horizon to bring isolated heroes like Moon Knight out of the shadows and into the fight with heroes like Captain America, Photon, Shang-Chi, Captain Marvel, and many more will be coming in Avengers: Doomsday. Doomsday is set to introduce Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom and threaten the future of the Multiverse. Events will then likely be resolved in Avengers: Secret Wars, though what the MCU will look like after, and which heroes survive remains to be seen.
However, Doom is certainly a big enough threat to force Moon Knight and other heroes into a major conflict.
