Most Marvel Cinematic Universe projects are full of references or cameos, but Moon Knight was unique in that it largely stood alone. The Disney+ series included very few references to the MCU and no crossover cameos, but Moon Knight director Mohamed Diab recently said there were originally a few in the script. Head writer Jeremy Slater has now revealed to The Direct that he tried very hard to get the Eternals to appear on Moon Knight.
I tried very hard to get the Eternals into the show, just because I’m buddies with Kumail Nanjiani… I want[ed] some Kingo. At one point, there was a flashback on the page that sort of showed one of Khonshu’s Avatars back in ancient Egypt, sort of dealing with Ammit being locked away, and Alexander the Great, and all of that stuff. You sort of saw this Avatar team-up with the Eternals. It was a really fun scene, but again, it was so massively expensive to recreate Ancient Egypt, to sort of bring in 3 or 4 of the Eternals to have this big action sequence.
As the Eternals have been active on Earth for many thousands of years, they would have been the perfect heroes to show up in Ancient Egypt. Jeremy Slater said that although it was a “very fun scene,” it was too expensive to pull off and would have reduced their budget for the rest of the show. “So, that was the cameo I had to cut,” Slater said. “It hurt, but it was also the right thing to do for the show, and I think everyone sort of collectively agreed. There’s plenty of time in the future to team this guy up with other characters in the MCU and start building these connections; let’s not force something just because the other shows have all had it.” While it would have been fun to have seen the Eternals on Moon Knight, they just weren’t needed at the end of the day.
The official synopsis for Moon Knight:
The series follows Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, who becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life. Steven discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.
All six episodes of Moon Knight are now streaming on Disney+.