Moon Knight almost assembled Marvel's next huge team-up, writer reveals
A Black Knight (Kit Harington) cameo in Moon Knight was scrapped. Was that the MCU's first and last Midnight Sons attempt? Unlikely.
Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater went on record with CBR this week, divulging that while a Dane Whitman/Black Knight (portrayed by Kit Harington in Eternals) cameo in the Oscar Isaac-fronted Disney+ series was considered, it was ultimately scrapped.
The Moon Knight writer’s room tossed the MCU crossover because Slater felt that a brief interaction between Dane and Steven Grant on the London museum circuit wouldn’t have been enough to appease audiences.
"My feeling was if we got Kit Harington to show up and he doesn't suit up and he doesn't kick ass, as a fan I'm pissed off,” Slater said.
But just because a Black Knight and Moon Knight link was never established, that doesn't mean all hope is lost for a supernatural showdown event. Here’s how the MCU might be gearing up to incorporate Black Knight into the forthcoming Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali and, eventually, a Midnight Sons adaptation.
Kit Harington on the Eternals red carpet premiere.
Who is Dane Whitman, aka, Black Knight?
Up until the post-credits scene in Chloé Zhao’s Eternals, viewers only know Harington’s character as the human boyfriend of Sersi (Gemma Chan), a powerful Eternal.
In the comics, Dane Whitman is the romantic interest of Sersi, but he’s also Black Knight, a superhero who struggles to maintain his goodness when exposed to the cursed Ebony Blade, which causes its wielders to become bloodthirsty. Among other skills, Black Knight is an expert swordsman, a skilled martial artist, and a gifted scientist.
Throughout the comics, Black Knight has had encounters with a wide variety of characters who are in, or are rumored to be coming to, the MCU. A character like Black Knight could help establish connections between Eternals and future MCU projects, setting up the cameos that get fans screaming with delight.
Black Knight first appeared in Black Knight No. 1, released May 1955. The early Marvel character was created by Stan Lee and Joe Maneely.
And while Black Knight isn’t an official member of the Midnight Sons, a gang of supernatural superheroes with a rotating roster, he does possess a supernatural object dripping with Marvel lore.
Eternals’ post-credits scene features an off-screen voice warning Dane not to handle the Ebony Blade, which in the comics has corrupted many in the Whitman family tree. That voice belongs to Mahershala Ali, who will appear in the MCU Phase 5 movie Blade as the half-human, half-vampire. The Ebony Blade curses its wielder, functioning much like the Darkhold does to Wanda in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
That scene may have been teasing a Black Knight appearance in Blade, but was it also hinting at the MCU’s plans for Midnight Sons?
Members of the Midnight Sons have included Morbius, Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Blade, Wong, Iron Fist, Moon Knight, Werewolf by Night, and Punisher, among many others.
Is the MCU gearing up for a Midnight Sons team-up?
The Inverse Analysis— Though we know an untitled Halloween 2022 special featuring Werewolf by Night and a forthcoming Blade project are looming on the horizon, it’s still too soon to place our bets on an MCU adaptation of the crimefighting mystics.
But the material is, in theory, right there and ripe for the taking. On top of being able to adapt comic book plots, Marvel can bank on the popularity of the Midnight Sons characters that are already in the MCU, like Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Wong (Benedict Wong) and Moon Knight (Oscar Isaac).
Marvel’s Midnight Sons were first introduced in the comics in Ghost Rider No. 31 on November 1992.
A standalone Midnight Sons Disney+ series or film could also solve one of Marvel’s current problems, which is its lack of major, star-studded team-ups and crossovers, a factor that revved up the hype for Phase 3. Those behemoth superhero squads led to to several smash box office hits, including Avengers: End Game, and right now the pieces aren’t quite in place to make a similar move.
While a Black Knight cameo in Moon Knight may have not made much sense given how Phase 4 seems to be more preoccupied with the integration and introduction of various Marvel properties into the MCU, the idea at least being tossed around in a writer’s room is a plus for Midnight Sons hopefuls.
How the rest of Phase 4 pans out, and the reception of Blade in Phase 5, will be likely determinants for the fate of the supernatural group.
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