Sometimes, the stuff you see on the Internet feels like stuff you see in a dream. Did your dad really attend your high school graduation in a chicken costume, or is that some kind of psychological issue you’re working through? Did you really see Moon Knight invading Dracula’s castle because Dracula owed him money, or did your brain just come up with that in a fit of exhaustion and stress? If you’re scratching your head over this one, then let me assure you that yes, you really did see Moon Knight hitting Dracula up for money. But does that mean Dracula is going to be in the new Moon Knight series on Disney Plus?
Moon Knight, streaming on Disney Plus on March 30, tells the story of Steven Grant, a mild-mannered museum gift shop employee who struggles with sleep issues. As his waking life and his dreams begin to collide, Steven finds out that he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with Marc Spector, a former mercenary. Together, they emerge as Moon Knight, a warrior priest of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, and fight Arthur Harrow, a cult leader and devotee of the goddess Ammit.
Moon Knight is, of course, based on the Marvel comics of the same name, and throughout the series’s 40-year run, Moon Knight has had some pretty wild adventures. There’s his origin story, for instance, in which Marc is left for dead at the foot of a statue of Khonshu and then resurrected. Superhero comics usually require some pretty heavy suspension of disbelief, and when you start throwing gods and magic into the mix, things can get especially outlandish.
So, the Dracula thing.
Moon Knight and Dracula Explained
First off, Dracula is actually a character in the Marvel universe. (Come on, they managed to work in Thor’s wife from the Norse myths, you think they’d leave out a legend like Vlad the Impaler?) Just like his non-Marvel self, the Dracula of Marvel comics is a Transylvanian nobleman-turned vampire who has spent centuries fighting off vampire hunters and other mortals trying to yuck his yum. In more recent years, he’s taken up residence in Chernobyl, where he’s created a vampire nation that the Avengers have to fight.
So it would only make sense that Dracula would butt up against other mystical characters like Moon Knight, right?
Recently, a panel from a Moon Knight comic has been making the rounds on social media. The panel features Moon Knight creeping around Vlad’s castle, saying, “I know you’re here, Dracula, you big f***ing nerd. Where’s my goddamn money?”
Ha! Classic Moon Knight. Of COURSE Dracula would owe him money! What situation will he get himself into next?
The only problem, sadly, is that the panel isn’t real. In the image above, you can see the fake panel on the left, with the real one on the right. The actual panel reads, “I know I shouldn’t let these things get to me. After all, I’m as much a creature of the night as Russell is. Still, there was something about this place that set my nerves on edge.”
As you might have picked up as soon as Moon Knight started talking about some guy named Russell, the dark corridor he’s walking in isn’t actually Dracula’s castle. James Whitbrook at Gizmodo explains that the panel is actually from Solo Avengers #3.
[The castle is] actually set in the Santa Monica Mountains in Southern California. Moon Knight’s there at the behest of one of his first “foes” from the comics, quickly turned ally: Jack Russell, aka the Werewolf-by-Night, who believes he has a lead for a criminal mastermind the West Coast Avengers—who Moon Knight had just joined—were looking for.
Based on the fact that the meme is a fake, the appearance of Dracula in the new Disney Plus series is highly unlikely, as much as we all now desperately want to see it. There was some speculation last June that Ethan Hawke might be playing Dracula based on some leaked set photos, but we now know that his character is Arthur Harrow. Dracula did not make an appearance in Season 1 of Moon Knight.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Dracula couldn’t make an appearance in some other MCU project! We know that Blade is coming to the MCU soon, and we’ve already been introduced to Dane Whitman, AKA Black Knight, who could be another vampire hunter.
In the meantime, enjoy Moon Knight on Disney Plus, streaming March 30!
(image: Universal)
