the guy who usually comes up with the obscure MCU

[Jin Wah]

Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight; Chris Evans as Captain America

Moon Knight is a unique entry into the MCU for a lot of reasons, but one is that it functions almost entirely on its own. The other Disney+ shows are inextricably tied to the bigger Marvel picture one way or the other. Yet Moon Knight barely even references the rest of the MCU–though not for lack of trying.

“There were definitely different times in the writing process where we talked about cameos because cameos are one of the most fun things to discuss in a writer’s room,” showrunner Jeremy Slater tells DiscussingFilm. “What happens if we try to get Chris Evans back as old Captain America? You know, you sit there and play that “what if” game among your writers.”

Would Evans have been willing to get back into Joe Biden cosplay to hang out with Oscar Isaac? It doesn’t sound like the “what if” discussion ever got that far. Slater does reiterate that he hoped for a cameo from Dane Whitman/Black Knight or the Eternals, but there ended up being budgetary considerations (“Our money would be better spent making Moon Knight as cool as possible versus spending that money to bring in another character and let them be cool”).

Only Murders in The Building Season 2 Episode 1

Only Murders In The Building Season 2

Plus, the guy who usually comes up with the obscure MCU cameos simply wasn’t feeling it this time around. “Kevin [Feige] comes to us and says, ‘You know what, guys? I know everyone loves the cameos. Everyone gets excited about it. But I really think your story is standing on its own two feet right now,’” Slater recalls. “Then it almost feels like shoehorning in an unnecessary cameo. Suddenly War Machine happens to be visiting Cairo at that time or something like that. It feels like it would have just jerked out of the story and really taken the focus away from the character journey that we were on between Marc and Steven.”

However, he admits, “[It’s] a little bit of a bummer because I like to play with all the toys in that sandbox, and I was like, ‘Give me Doctor Strange [and] Spider-Man.’ But at the same time, you recognize that it’s the right creative decision.”