With just over a week until Moon Knight on Disney+ finally ends this Marvel Studios dry spell. I feel like a child on Christmas Eve and I cannot wait to see what Marvel Studios has in store for this six-part event. While quite a few trailers and clips have been released on this boundary-pushing show, not much is known about Moon Knight and its characters. While we get the sense that Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow is the antagonist of the series, other Moon Knight villains may still be lurking in the shadows. So who may actually be the villain and eclipse the Moon Knight?
Arthur Harrow
Shocking I know, but everything that we have seen about Hawke’s Arthur Harrow points to him being a villain of the series. In the comics, Arthur, a relatively minor character, is a doctor who uses Nazi information to conduct pain theory experiments on innocent people. However, from what has been shown in trailers, this doesn’t seem to be the same Dr. Arthur Harrow from the comics.
Hawke spoke about his character with Seth Myers and indicated that he based Arthur on David Koresh, an infamous cult leader. That aligns with what we have seen of the character. Using his staff and a purple-black magic, Arthur Harrow seems to be controlling groups of people through mind control.
Perhaps instead of pain theory, Harrow has stumbled onto mind control magic that he uses on innocent people and that’s something Moon Knight would have something to say about. Having read quite a few of the comics, I know that Moon Knight is a protector of the disenfranchised and innocent so it seems that he would be against Arthur Harrow’s experimentation. How large of a role Arthur Harrow has in the series, or if there’s another force behind him in the end is left to be seen.
Khonshu
Our next possible villain of the series is the same God who gives Marc Spector/Steven (Oscar Isaac) his powers. For those familiar with the many comic series of Moon Knight, this one makes a lot of sense. Khonshu grants Marc Spector powers after Marc is left for dead in the desert. An idol of the Egyptian God saves him, however, then becomes a sinister puppetmaster for Moon Knight.
Many times in the comic series, Khonshu appears to give instructions for Moon Knight or orders that he demands be fulfilled. Moon Knight, who can still think for himself, comes into conflict frequently with the missions given to him and sometimes chooses to disobey Khonshu’s demands. Doing so invokes punishment, such as the loss of his moon powers or even into direct fights with the God itself. Moon Knight’s run from 2016 to 2017 told a story of how Khonshu tried to take over Marc’s body completely when he wouldn’t obey.
With such a rich and tortured history between Khonshu and Marc, I could see some form of this easily playing out somewhere in the six episodes. As Marc/Steve work to uncover the truth, they may discover the one that saved them is more bad than good.
Another Force May Be one of The True Moon Knight Villains
Another Force sounds so ambiguous, though, for the purpose of this article, it works. Marvel Studios love their twist endings when it comes to villains. Iron Man 3 and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier jump out as prime examples of the bait and switch that Marvel seems to enjoy.
So perhaps there’s another villain that is lurking in the shadows waiting to strike. Rumors have been spiraling of the God Ammut making a late staged appearance, through Layla played by May Calamawy. That would be an interesting twist and put Steven/Marc in a predicament. However, the trope of “female love interests turns out to be the villain” is old and overdone. So hopefully Marvel decides to go another way.
But perhaps there’s another Egyptian God that is angry with Khonshu and ready to make his move, such as the Sun God. There has been no confirmation of either Ammut or The Sun God, but both are excellent examples of the craziness that we’re in store for in Moon Knight when it finally drops on March 30.
Who do you think will be the real villain of Moon Knight? Let us know in the comments or on on Twitter @mycosmiccircus!
