Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, streaming, TV | Tagged: christian bale, gorr the god butcher, jeremy slater, moon knight, thor: love and thunder

Moon Knight: Why That Thor: Love and Thunder Crossover Didn't Happen

Traditionally throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe's 14-year existence, audiences have largely been used to films and television shows connecting to each other in one way or another. It would seem like the Disney+ series Moon Knight has become such a rare instance, breaking from tradition as originally planned (according to executive producer, creator & head writer Jeremy Slater) by choosing to not go with references to the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder. Speaking with The Direct, Slater broke down how Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher, the primary villain of the Taika Waititi film would have factored in.

Slater revealed there were various versions of the script that would have referenced the film, but things were uncertain given the then uncertain release date. "Both a lot and a little [on how film factored into the TV series]. But the reality is that we had no idea—when we started working on the show, we didn't know when we were debuting," he said. "We always sort of assumed it would be later down the road, and we would sort of be coming out in fall of 2022, and we thought we would probably be following Thor[: Love and Thunder]. But at that time, Thor didn't necessarily have a concrete release date either, everything was sort of up in the air, and it's like we might be ahead of Thor, or we might be finishing up. So there were different versions of the script where the Gods would sort of talk about, 'This thing with Gorr the God Butcher just happened, and now we've got this new problem.' And then there were other versions of the script where they sort of talked about, 'We're hearing rumors [that] Gods are dying, this is not the right time to get involved.' Like we tried to have our cake and eat it too."

It was ultimately Marvel's idea to leave Gorr out. "We knew the general beats of what would happen in 'Thor: Love and Thunder', so that we wouldn't be contradicting anything," Slater said. "But we had versions of the story that sort of teased Gorr's arrival, and [ones] that were sort of taking place in the aftermath of that movie. Ultimately at some point, Marvel just made the creative decision, 'You know what, we don't necessarily need this.' The way that Ennead scene ultimately panned out in Episode 3, it didn't feel like there was an organic place to sort of drop in, like, 'Oh, and by the way, this has nothing to do with the story we're currently telling, but there's a thing happening over here.' I think Marvel is getting very smart about how they sort of work in those references and cameos, and they'll do it if it makes sense. [They won't] do it if they hurt the story, [so] they don't do it just for the sake of doing it. I think that was a time where they felt like, 'We're stretching to make this connection, we don't really need it.'"

The events of Moon Knight follow Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac), a mild-mannered gift shop employee, who finds out he's secretly living a double life as mercenary Marc Spector. The two share an alter-ego in the superhero known as Moon Knight, which functions as the avatar of the Egyptian god Khonshu (voice of F. Murray Abraham). With the help of Layla (May Calamawy), he attempts to stop the dark forces led by Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke). Moon Knight is available to stream on Disney+. while Thor: Love and Thunder hits theaters on July 8th.

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