Marvel Studios is pulling out all the stops this year with some very exciting new superheroes arriving into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)! One of those heroes just so happens to be a mentally unhinged man who runs around at night beating criminals bloody. He is the defender of those who travel by night. The righteous hand of a long, forgotten god waiting to exert himself into the mortal plane. A man suffering from Dissocative Identity Disorder (DID), trying to make sense of the many lives he’s lived. He is the Moon Knight! The warrior in white will soon be getting his own TV series on Disney+ streaming services, and we’re looking forward to seeing how Oscar Isaac brings this character to life.
The Moon Knight is a fascinating character but what if we told you that he shares a connection with another hero in the MCU? We’re talking about the Black Panther. Find out how the Moon Knight’s fate could be tied to the Ruler of Wakanda and the very fate of the nation itself.
War of the Gods
Now there’s a lot of history and lore to unpack here so let’s start with a quote from the late Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa: In my culture, death is not the end. It’s more of a stepping off point. You reach out with both hands and Bast and Sekhmet, they lead you into a green veld where… you can run forever.” That line came after his father, T’Chaka died at the hands of the terrorist, Helmut Zemo in “Captian America: Civil War”. Fans of the “Black Panther” film no doubt be aware of Bast, the Panther Goddess of Wakanda and the one who led to the creation of the Black Panthers that ruled the land. She also protects the souls of dead Wakandans and is deeply connected to Wakanda’s past kings and rulers. What’s interesting here is the mention of Sekhmet.
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet is a lion goddess associated with the sun. So, why would an Egyptian god be mentioned in the same breath with a Wakandan one? The thing is the patron god of Wakanda, Bast is actually part of both the Egyptian and Wakandan pantheon of gods as well. In Egypt, she might be better known for her name Bastet. This fact has been established within the Black Panther comics. So for all intents and purposes, she knows of the other Egyptian gods like Ra, Osiris, Anubis and of course, Marvel’s Egyptian God of the Moon, Khonshu. Bast is essentially Khonshu’s half-sister.
In our breakdown of Disney’s “Moon Knight”, we learn that the series will centred around a war between gods sets against the backdrop of ancient and modern Egypt. In the comics, Khonshu and Moon Knight clashed with the Black Panther when Khonshu tried to take over the world in an effort to save it from Mephisto. So in spite of Moon Knight generally fighting for the innocent, the god he serves isn’t exactly benevolent. According to series creator Jeremy Slater, Khonshu is “imperious and sort of snotty and vengeful”. In the upcoming “Moon Knight” series, we’ll probably get to know more about the cause behind this war between the Gods of Egypt. Now that we’ve established a connection between Khonshu and the Panther Goddess of Wakanda, we’re wondering: How will the series depict their rivalry?
Moon Knight In Wakanda?
Now, before any of you ask, the chances of us seeing the modern Black Panther and Moon Knight meeting together in the MCU is quite impossible. For one, our dear Chadwick Boseman passed away in August 2020 and and filming for “Moon Knight” began on March 2021. So don’t expect any post-humous scenes or any motion capture of the like. Now, what we very well could see are ancient versions of Khonshu’s Moon Knight and Bast’s Black Panther battling one another.
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With the description of warring gods in ancient and modern Egypt, it would make perfect sense that these gods would use human pawns as their soldiers. We could see Khonshu’s champions face off against ancient Black Panthers. It could be shown in a flashback with Khonshu telling Oscar Isaac’s Steven Grant (or Marc Spector) about the importance of his role as the Moon Knight. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even get to see Grant head over to Wakanda for a little bit.
One of the reasons we could see Grant visit Wakanda is to enlists the help of Bast as well as other Egyptian gods to face off against a new threat. In a TV spot trailer for “Moon Knight”, we get a closer look at Moon Knight’s villain, Arthur Harrow played by Ethan Hawke. The sypnosis for the series suggests that Moon Knight will have to uncover a mystery concerning some of the most powerful gods of Egypt. Somehow, this war and mystery is linked to the villain of the series: Arthur Harrow. Who is he? And more importantly, which god does he serve?
As of now, we’re fairly certain that the villain of “Moon Knight”, Arthur Harrow is drawing his power from the Egyptian God of the Dead, Anubis. In the TV spot trailer, we see a moving tattoo on Harrow’s arm as Steven stares in disbelief. A tattoo of two scales tipping back and forth. In ancient Egyptian mythology, Anubis is believed to have judged the dead by weighing their hearts on scales with a feather on the other platform.
Bast is another deity who watches over the dead of Wakanda. Could we possibly be seeing a clash between Anubis and Bast for the souls of dead? Anubis getting greedy and trying to claim more souls could be the reason for the war between gods. Perhaps, Khonshu is sending his own agent to foil Harrow and Anubis for his own purposes.
So what do you guys think? Do you think we’ll see some allusions to the Black Panther, Bast and Wakanda in Disney’s upcoming “Moon Knight” series? Well, be sure to be on the lookout for it when it hits Disney+ streaming services on 30th March 2022!
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