Marvel Can Now Confidently Remove Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight in MCU

It may be all about Secret Invasion this year, but last year Moon Knight dominated Disney+ thanks to Oscar Isaac’s Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. But will fans ever get to see the actor again?

After two years of near-constant MCU entries, Kevin Feige’s popular studio has hammered the breaks on. Since Bob Iger’s return as Chief Mouse at The Walt Disney Company, content curation and content removal have been firmly in motion.

For Marvel, that means that many upcoming movies in Phase Five and Phase Six (including Avengers: Secret Wars (2027)) and the many TV shows slated for release this year (What If…? Season 2, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Ironheart) have been delayed. As of July, only Secret Invasion has been released, many months after the last MCU Disney+ outing, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Next up will be Loki in October and Echo, which will drop all its episodes at once in November.

Last year, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel joined She-Hulk: Attorney at Law as Marvel’s 2022 Disney+ offerings, with the former being the most in-demand premiere in the United States in the first quarter of the year, per Parrot Analytics.

Oscar Isaac (Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens) made his MCU debut as Steven Grant/Marc Spector/Jake Lockley, AKA Moon Knight. Isaac’s characters, who suffer from dissociative identity disorder, are also the avatar for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu (Karim El Hakim/F. Murray Abraham), with Ethan Hawke playing the role of the villainous Arthur Harrow. The series, based on Egyptian mythology, was created by Jeremy Slater, with Mohamed Diab leading the writing team.

Related: ‘Secret Invasion’ Star Speaks Out on Being Replaced by Hollywood Icon in the MCU

But away from the screen and back to the comic books, Moon Knight’s — or Marc Spector’s — time is coming to a rapid end, as Marvel Comics just announced they would be killing Marc Spector.

“Marc Spector and his alters have been Moon Knight since the character’s introduction in 1975’s Werewolf By Night #32, but now it seems that’s about to change with ‘The Last Days of Moon Knight,’ a new story arc launching later this year which is teasing the death of Marc Spector and the rise of a new Moon Knight,” writes GamesRadar.

The current “Moon Knight” run is led by creative duo Jed MacKay and Allesandro Capuccio, with this epic installment coming in October, detailing the battle between Moon Knight’s Midnight Mission and the Black Spectre and his creatures. And the death of Marc Spector in the comics may be a sign that the MCU could follow suit.

This now gives Marvel a way out of featuring Moon Knight, or Marc Spector, long-term in the MCU without causing issues with the hardcore comic book fanbase. Because if he dies on the page, it would be more than normal for him to die in live-action.

MCU storylines and those in the comics have, at best, been influential. However, could the recent announcement of Ms. Marvel being resurrected as an X-Man in the books after it was revealed she had mutant genes in the MCU be a sign that each medium is being more and more led by the other?

There is also the rather prominent notion of the current state of streaming. Moon Knight was never confirmed for a second season, but rumors and even Isaac himself have alluded to a sophomore outing being developed. As Bob Iger doubles down on his efforts to bring Disney+ into profitability, killing Moon Knight off in-universe in a different show or movie already on the Marvel Studios slate would eliminate the need for a Moon Knight Season 2.

While many may argue that the MCU takes inspiration from the comics and does not follow them directly, there was the incident last year when Marvel executive Nate Moore stated that Black Panther was a mantle and not inherently just T’Challa that caused controversy.

True, there have been other Black Panthers, but T’Challa is the most recognizable and iconic of the bunch and is a staple of Marvel Comics. This is why it caused such an uproar when it was confirmed that Marvel Studios would be killing off T’Challa in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) after actor Chadwick Boseman died in real life from a battle with colon cancer.

So Oscar Isaac may be open to returning as Moon Knight (even if it’s not “imperative”), and fans may also want to see the beloved Marvel and Star Wars actor back in the many Moon Knight suits, but the source material is saying otherwise. Will Marvel Studios reject the comic book storyline? Or embrace it to tell the next chapter of the Moon Knight story and ultimately remove Oscar Isaac from the role?

Related: Marvel Reworks Next MCU Show, Will Likely Be the Last to Release on Disney+: Report

With everything up in the air surrounding the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, as well as the tension over superhero fatigue and streaming oversaturation, Moon Knight Season 2 may never see the light of day anyway, but this latest announcement from Marvel Comics may be a sign of what to expect if he does return.

Do you think audiences will ever see Moon Knight in the MCU again? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!