Moon Knight Reportedly Being Developed For Netflix
Jamie Lovett - 10/14/2015

The Punisher and Elektra may not be the only anti-heroes being added to the Netflix corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marc Spector, a.k.a. Moon Knight, may be showing up as well.

The news comes from Heroic Hollywood’s Umberto “El Mayimbe” Gonzales, who was a guest on the Collider Heroes video cast. Around the 10 minute mark in the video below, Gonzales and the hosts are discussing what Marvel’s recently announced 2020 mystery movies may be. Moon Knight is mentioned as a possibility, but Gonzales says he’s heard they’re preparing the character for the “back door pilot” treatment on Netflix, similar to the Punisher in the second season of Daredevil.

Gonzales doesn’t say much more than that. Rumors and speculation about Moon Knight coming to the MCU have been circulating for a long time, without anything really solid to hang the idea on. It’s unclear if Mayimbe has heard new information about the project, or if he’s referencing older rumors.

Either way, he’s right about Moon Knight being a much better fit for Netflix than Marvel’s big screen. Moon Knight is often referred to as “Marvel’s Batman,” and has the dark tone and history to match. He’d fit right in with the vision Netflix laid out in Daredevil.

MARVEL CONSIDERING REPLACING IRON FIST WITH PUNISHER SERIES Frank Palmer October 23, 2015 News
ironfist

Our source (who first gave us a heads up about Marvel planning a Moon Knight series) has informed us that Marvel is considering replacing the Iron Fist series that was initially planned with a Punisher series. When I asked for some elaboration, this is what I received:

Marvel can’t quite seem to figure out how to put Iron Fist into the equation and time is running out. They’re very pleased with Jon Bernthal’s portrayal of Frank Castle for Season 2 of Daredevil and know that the fans have a great appreciation for the character. They also know that a Punisher series would be much cheaper and more marketable. They have a contract with Netflix and have to do something. It appears that for this phase of shows, time is running thin for Iron Fist.

Interestingly enough, that original story did say that Marvel was at least talking about a Punisher series.

I’d advise taking this news with a grain of salt – but it could make sense. From what I’ve gathered, Marvel is having trouble finding a showrunner for Iron Fist and that all of the pitches that they’ve received are nothing that they can really work with. There have also been many rumors that the TV side of Marvel is getting a “shake up” with recent changes in the creative department (Inhumans).

If Marvel is looking to go really dark, the transition could make sense. Daredevil was “hard PG-13” and from the looks of it, Jessica Jones is going to be darker than that. What better way to make a statement in that sense than to make a series for Punisher and Moon Knight?

The only thing I’m skeptical about is how this would fit into their plans for The Defenders? I mean, a series for The Punisher wouldn’t mean that he would be replacing Iron Fist in the Defenders lineup, but I guess we’ll see.

Sonia Braga has joined the cast of Marvel’s Luke Cage, the third series in the pop culture giant’s four-series package for Netflix. The Kiss Of The Spider Woman actress will play Soledad Temple, mother of the Rosario Dawson portrayed Claire Temple – whom we’ve previously met in Marvel’s Daredevil and briefly in Marvel’s Jessica Jones.

Set to debut with a 13-episode first season on the streaming service in 2016, Luke Cage has American Horror Story:Coven alum Mike Colter playing the ex-con with superstrength who tries to get his life back on track and becomes a hero for hire to pay the bills in contemporary NYC. Fans of the long established Marvel character, who first appeared back in 1972, Colter’s Cage also is a featured player and love interest in Jessica Jones, which debuted November 20 on Netflix.

Ray Donovan‘s Cheo Hodari Coker is Luke Cage’s showrunner and will write the series’ first 2-episodes. Marvel’s Luke Cage is produced by Marvel Television in association with ABC Studios for Netflix.

Emmy nominated Braga is repped by Levity Entertainment

JEPH LOEB EMBRACES 'GROUNDED STORIES' OF MARVEL'S NETFLIX SERIES

CBR News: Jeph, your more recent comics work has mostly been big, colorful superhero stuff -- "Hulk," "Nova" -- but you're certainly familiar with the more street-level, noir-toned fare of these Netflix shows, going back to comics like your Batman work with Tim Sale. Do you find it easy, on a personal level, as a creator to connect with the Daredevils and the Jessica Joneses of the Marvel Netflix world?

Jeph Loeb: Let me put it this way: I find it very easy to connect with good storytelling. When I've been able to work with the caliber of people that we've been working with, then it becomes, hopefully, things that are as successful as the shows that we've been doing. There is a very large plan in terms of where we want these characters to go, and the stories we want to tell, and the showrunners that come along on that adventure know that and know that they're working on a very big tapestry, in the same kind of way the filmmakers know that. That's what our responsibility at Marvel is, to make sure that the stories that we're telling feel new and fresh, and at the same time, continue to expand.

For us, it starts with a very simple question: What is a hero? Every single one of the stories that we're telling -- whether it's Phil Coulson, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.; Agent Carter, a woman who's trying to make it in a clearly-defined males' world; to a blind attorney who's trying to save his neighborhood; to a woman who's trying to, in many ways, save herself; to the first African-American superhero that comes from the streets and is interested in making sure that not just Hell's Kitchen, but we're going to be going up to Harlem, and really dealing with what's going on in the world, both in terms of superheroes and race. It's important that we have an opportunity to use our characters to tell real-life stories. Grounded stories that make people think about the world that they're in. I think that's another thing that we've really touched on with "Jessica Jones." Her relationship with Kilgrave and what happened to her and how you recover from that is something that is worth discussing, and in many ways, this is a very brand-new arena to do that in. I think that's why a lot of people are responding to it.

Any time when you can start to open up the world and allow people to have conversations about current social events -- and I'm not trying to get up on a soapbox at all, but that has always been Marvel. Whether it's race, or whether it's drugs, or whether it's just what it is to feel helpless in society, these are the issues that make comic books much more than what some people think of them as, which is the "biff, bam, boom!" of children's literature. And that's not to say there aren't places for that -- when I wrote "Hulk," one of the things that I loved about that book was that it was fun. We went back to "Hulk Smash," and lived in that world. But when I told the story of "Hulk: Gray," it was a very personal story about a man who didn't live in a black and white world. He lives in a world that was gray. Some people saw him as a monster, and some people saw him as a hero. How do you deal with that? And what is that metaphor at the end of the day?

I think one of the things that separates Marvel from other superhero, genre-storytelling is that it very much lives in the real world. We don't have cities that have made-up names. It takes place in New York. Hell's Kitchen is a real place. The streets and the avenues that we talk about are real things. They get into real cabs and they have real phones. It's not to say that we don't have a car that flies, and you can't have a lot of fun with it, but it needs to start in a place that's very grounded -- and then you build up from that. If an audience has to accept that there are people with abilities that are running around in uniforms, then the audience needs to understand that, "Oh, it's a real world. What would it be like if those things happened?" In a world that, right now, can be very confusing, and there are some real villains out there, if we can tell stories that inspire people, that can only be a good thing.

You've spoken of the overall plan for these shows, and we've known from the beginning that it's meant to culminate in a "Defenders" miniseries. But there's still a long way to go, between "Daredevil" season 2, "Luke Cage" and "Iron Fist." Is the "Defenders" plan fairly fluid at this point, or do you have a clear idea of how it's all going to go down?

Short answer is yes, and the big answer is, you know I can't talk about that. [Laughs]

Right, not looking for specifics, but in a larger sense?

Very much so. Has been from the very beginning.

Will there be some Iron Fist-specific news in the near future, or is that maybe a bit down the road -- casting or a creative-type attached to it?


One of the things we wanted to be able to do was make sure that "Jessica" -- which was a property that a lot of people did not know, and really, hats off to the people at Netflix who came up with the ad campaign, which is a sign that the world learned her name. Albert, you and I have actually talked about this before. Every time you start any property, whether it's in comics or in movies or in television or in animation, everyone's always looking for, "Tell us a little something about the next one, so we can get the jump on that story."

There was a lot of speculation about what was going on with "Iron Fist," because [fans] hadn't heard anything about it, but there's never been any change at all. We knew exactly what we were doing at Marvel and at Netflix. Let's get "Jess" out there, everybody knows that "Luke Cage" is up and going. What I can say right now is, we're very excited about "Iron Fist," and the short answer is, yes there'll be news.