Speculation is running wild about Marvel’s Moon Knight on Disney Plus! How many of the characters from the comics will we see in the series? Who exactly is Arthur Harrow, Ethan Hawke’s mysterious villain? How does the series tie into the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Well, a TV spot for the series contains an Easter egg that may tie Moon Knight into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, one of Marvel’s first Disney Plus series.
Moon Knight tells the story of Steven Grant, a mild-mannered museum gift shop employee who finds out that he has Dissociative Identity Disorder and shares a body with Marc Spector, a mercenary and former CIA agent. As Steven and Marc’s lives and memories begin to blend together, they emerge as Moon Knight, a warrior priest of the Egyptian god Khonshu. Moon Knight will explore issues of identity, mysticism, and mental health as Steven, Marc, and Moon Knight face Arthur Harrow.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (TFATWS), by contrast, contains no mystical elements at all. TFATWS focuses on the post-Blip exploits of Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barns (Sebastian Stan) as they try to track down an international terrorist group called the Flag Smashers, which seeks to help people displaced by the Blip by thwarting governments’ efforts to return the world to pre-Blip normalcy. One government agency, the Global Repatriation Council (GRC), plays a major role in TFATWS, and now it looks like it might show up in Moon Knight.
The Moon Knight TV Spot
The previous trailer for Moon Knight focused on Steven Grant, but in the TV spot, we get to meet Marc Spector for the first time, as he explains their shared past to Steven. As Steven learns that Marc is an American secret agent, there’s a very quick shot of Moon Knight standing in front of a bus. On the bus, there’s an ad for the GRC with a partially hidden tagline reading “… you with your better half.”
If you watched TFATWS, you’ll remember that the GRC is a highly controversial organization. After the blip, billions of people came back into existence to find that they had lost everything, with their homes and jobs given away to people who hadn’t been blipped away. The crisis was especially bad for migrant workers and people in poverty, who found themselves living in overcrowded refugee camps. The conditions of the camps, coupled with the GRC’s decision to forcibly deport refugees to their countries of origin whether they wanted to go or not, was what led to the formation of the Flag Smashers. As we can see in the TV spot, the GRC is still active when Moon Knight takes place.
Does this mean that Moon Knight ties into TFATWS? Will Sam and Bucky show up to help Marc and Steven out?
Probably not. The GRC ad is probably there to establish when exactly the events of Moon Knight occur within the MCU timeline. Eternals also shows a GRC ad, briefly visible while Sersi is taking a picture of the knife on display in London’s Natural History Museum. Thanks to the bus ad in the TV spot, we know for sure that Moon Knight is post-Blip, and soon enough after the return of half the life in the universe that society is still reorienting itself. Moon Knight may take place at the same time as the other MCU series and films that came before it, so we may see more hints of other superhero goings-on throughout the show. (For instance, I’m still waiting for someone, anyone, in the MCU to acknowledge the colossal dead Celestial now poking out of the ocean.)
The ad could also imply that the world is still in turmoil when Moon Knight takes place, with Blip refugees still dealing with displacement and uncertainty over their futures, and the resulting civil unrest still occurring. With Marc being a former CIA agent, it wouldn’t be surprising if Moon Knight tied into the broader global issues first explored in TFATWS, even if it doesn’t directly tie into Sam and Bucky’s story.
Moon Knight premieres on March 30 on Disney Plus!
(image: Marvel)
