In today’s not-entirely-from-left-field rumor file we’re hearing that Marvel is developing Moon Knight for Netflix. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard these rumors, so it could just be a rehash of them on Collider Heroes (via Screen Crush), but you can watch that episode below:
Umberto Gonzalez of Heroic Hollywood suggests that the character will be introduced in an upcoming series as a backdoor pilot, much in the same way that The Punisher is being introduced in the second season of Daredevil. It’s here that I’ll give you the “take it with a grain of salt” warning, but I have a good feeling that this rumor has some validity.
First of all, this is how Marvel Studio rolls... When the studio kicked off Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, it absolutely intended to follow up with Thor and Captain America. Ant-Man was also being developed at the time, so they had quite a few projects in the pipeline for the future. Even now, Marvel has the film side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe planned out in broad strokes up to Phase Six.
The Netflix corner of the MCU is meant to bring together the characters of their first four series together in The Defenders. If we think of that as Netflix’s Phase One, then you can bet they’re hoping to expand their properties in the same way that the films did for Phase Two.
The only problem may be a release schedule for these series as I don’t think they’ll be able to release more than two of them simultaneously. Fortunately, two of the properties that have yet to premiere are Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Carrie-Anne Moss’ character in Jessica Jones was just recently announced to be Jeryn Hogarth -- a character well known in the world of Luke Cage and Iron Fist -- so I would be shocked if either of those shows got a season two.
I suspect the plan is to bring both of those characters together for a new series called Heroes for Hire. That will make room for The Punisher and Moon Knight series without crowding Netflix too much.
Jessica Jones will premiere exclusively on Netflix on November 20, 2015 while Daredevil season two should hit the streaming service in 2016.
Art: Marvel/Stephen Platt