Moon Knight May Replace Iron Fist on Marvel's Netflix Series

Edited by Robert Beach

You may have heard some seriously weird rumors about Marvel’s Netflix line up lately. In case you hadn’t heard, Marvel is planning a whole slew of interconnected Netflix shows over the course of the next couple years. This shared Netflix universe already started earlier this year with Daredevil and is set to continue this November with Jessica Jones. Next year we’ll see Marvel’s Luke Cage show in spring, which will mark the first Marvel enterprise to be headlined by a black character.  

After Luke Cage, the plan was for there to be an Iron Fist show about the character of Danny Rand: a billionaire who was trained in martial arts in the hidden city of K’un-Lun and gained the ability to channel his life energy into his fists. After that, the plan was for all of four of Marvel heroes to crossover in a mini-Avengers style mash up called Defenders; however, the Iron Fist show has hit some serious hiccups, and now the rumor is it’s been canceled. With Daredevil season 2 slouching in to fill its spot in 2016, rumors that a new show featuring Moon Knight will take Iron Fist's place. 

 

Why Cancel?

Marvel has been reportedly skittish about its Iron Fist show for awhile, as evidenced by how long it’s taken them to approach casting an actor for the lead role. It’s a bit surprising given how gung-ho Marvel has been about other franchises that were infinitely weirder than Iron Fist like Guardians of the Galaxy or Thor. Compared to “Space Viking Gods” and “talking raccoon with lasers,” Iron Fist’s origin is actually fairly standard, especially given we’ve already seen plenty of other successful heroes trained in hidden cities of the far East. 

Actually, that point of comparison is probably part of why Marvel has been dragging its feet so much on Iron Fist; he’s far too similar to the origin story featured in Batman Begins and Arrow. While not exactly the same, all three would revolve around a rich person who somehow ends up stranded in a far-away hidden location where they become masters of an esoteric fighting style. Iron Fist is actually very similar to the set-up of Arrow. 

Aside from the origin similarities, both Arrow and Iron Fist would feature heroes in predominately green costumes. My guess is Arrow’s fledglingly popularity when Marvel announced Iron Fist made them more inclined to think they could stand against it. After the major success of Flash and Arrow season 3, and Legends of Tomorrow waiting in the wings, it seems Marvel is decidedly afraid of the CW-universe. It makes sense they would be too, CW produced Smallville, which is unquestionably the most successful live-action superhero show of the modern era. They’ve got infinitely more experience in this arena. 

The other major reason I suspect Iron Fist is being pushed into indefinite hiatus is that it deals with a subject not yet covered in the Marvel films: magic. The Marvel movies have always skirted around the idea of straight-up magic, mainly in the realm of the Thor franchise. It usually relies on scientist Jane Foster to explain away the magic of the Norse Gods as simply highly advanced science. Additionally, the Norse Gods have always been portrayed as less legitimate Gods of myth and more incredibly powerful aliens. There’s an understanding that their abilities aren’t magic, just natural powers their species possess. 

Doctor Strange will be the first Marvel film to address the issue of mystic spells and summoning without the scientific safety net or the distance implied by aliens. It’s going to be a make or break moment for Marvel, and they can’t risk Iron Fist coming in first and messing up the whole affair. Also, if Doctor Strange’s mystic affects don’t land with audiences, Marvel would be stuck with Iron Fist’s mysticism for a whole Netflix season.  It’s just too risky for them. 

An Unlikely Savior 

Enter salvation from an unlikely source: Moon Knight. Moon Knight is one of the weirdest Marvel characters there is, and that’s not a statement I make lightly. Created by Doug Moench specifically as an excuse to write Batman-esque stories for Marvel, Moon Knight comes off like a slightly more honest version of Batman. Originally, he didn’t even have a real name or backstory; he was just a mysterious moon-themed mercenary hired by a group called the council to hunt werewolves for them. This was part of a brief story in Marvel’s then-successful Werewolf By Night comic. 

Moon Knight proved so popular that he got a spin-off comic. It was revealed his real name was Marc Spector. He was a marine who, during a firefight in Egypt, fell into the shrine of an ancient moon god named Khonshu. Because this is the Marvel universe, it turns out that Khonshu is totally real and has chosen Marc to be his avatar on Earth, a choice which more-or-less drives him insane for years. He developed multiple personality disorder, which the ‘70s comic unfortunately treated like a neat trick. Moon Knight also developed a whole arsenal of moon-themed gear like "moon-arangs" and a moon-copter. 

Moon Knight’s been through a number of redesigns and revisions since his initial run, but he always seems to come back. He served for quite awhile as part of Marvel’s West Coast Avengers before falling into unhinged homelessness as part of mid-2000s series during the Civil War event. More recently, Warren Ellis revived him with his various manias mercifully removed and serving once more as Khonshu’s avatar on Earth. 

He’s not exactly a massive hit character, though he’s achieved serious cult status among comic geeks, mainly because no one else looks like he does. He’s also perfect for filling an Iron Fist-type space as his origins are suitably mystic in nature while not crossing over into full-on magic like Iron Fist. Khonshu can be revealed to BE a God if Marvel does decide to pull the mystic trigger, or it could just be left as a figment of Moon Knight’s fevered imagination. 

There’s also the strong possibility Marvel will use Moon Knight as part of their rumored plan to branch into actual mythic characters.  It’s been confirmed that in Avengers: Age of Ultron there was a scene where Thor denies the existence of the Greek myths, but Marvel had the scene explicitly cut from the film. That, combined with Thor’s upcoming trilogy conclusion and the new Hercules comic, has led many to suspect Marvel is plotting to embrace legitimate mythic pantheons as part of phase 4.  If that is the case, Moon Knight would be a great way to begin wheeling audiences in that direction. 


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