'Moon Knight' almost featured a connection to Christian Bale's 'Thor: Love and Thunder' villain

The secrets behind the production of Moon Knight on Disney+ are vast and seemingly limitless. Like the mighty gods of Ancient Egypt, head writer and executive producer Jeremy Slater has descended from the Overvoid to discuss everything that did and didn't make it into the latest MCU television series. With all the secrets he was let in on, you'd think Slater was the mortal avatar of the great and powerful Kevin Feige.

Slater's latest bit of insight pertains to the archaic deities of the desert, who nearly connected the small screen project to this summer's Thor: Love and Thunder with a quick line about Gorr the God Butcher — Christian Bale's immortal-slaying antagonist — during their Giza meeting in Episode 3. The only problem? Marvel's release calendar, which constantly fluctuated in response to the ever-changing landscape of the COVID-19 health crisis. Therefore, the Moon Knight team wasn't sure where the show would chronologically fall in relation to the fourth Thor adventure.

"There were different versions of the script where the Gods would sort of talk about, ‘This thing with Gorr the God Butcher just happened, and now we’ve got this new problem.’ And then there were other versions of the script where they sort of talked about, ‘We’re hearing rumors [that] Gods are dying, this is not the right time to get involved.’ Like we tried to have our cake and eat it too," Slater revealed to The Direct.

But as with every other proposed link that would have tied the self-contained narrative to the wider goings-on of the expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe (including a crossover sequence with the Eternals), the moment was, unfortunately, dropped by Marvel Studios.

"The way that Ennead scene ultimately panned out in Episode 3, it didn’t feel like there was an organic place to sort of drop-in, like, ‘Oh, and by the way, this has nothing to do with the story we’re currently telling, but there’s a thing happening over here,’" Slater explained. "I think Marvel is getting very smart about how they sort of work in those references and cameos, and they’ll do it if it makes sense. [They won’t] do it if they hurt the story, [so] they don’t do it just for the sake of doing it. I think that was a time where they felt like, ‘We’re stretching to make this connection, we don’t really need it.’"

A reference to Gorr would have been a really cool treat for fans, while also adding a bit more dread into the equation by underscoring the fact that even the most powerful beings of the MCU are not safe from death. Nevertheless, the decision to leave it by the wayside serves as a perfect example of how the studio continually adapts to shifting schedules and other production-related issues.

Just recently, for example, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels swapped theatrical release dates, so the latter could have a bit more time to coalesce. Think of it as one big jigsaw puzzle with a never-ending supply of pieces. Just when you think you've found the right one, it changes shape, forcing you to rethink its position in the greater whole.

All six episodes of Moon Knight are now streaming on Disney+ along with the first three Thor films. Love and Thunder hits the big screen Friday, July 8. 

Looking for more content concerning Ancient Egypt? DreamWorks Animation's The Prince of Egypt is currently available on Peacock.