Early on in Moon Knight, the Disney+ series has provided more questions for fans than answers. The first few episodes have received rave reviews as the mystery around Oscar Isaac's Marc Spector begins to unfold on-screen. Audiences were thrown into the action as Spector's dissociative identity disorder was put on full display, showing how the mercenary-turned-vigilante shared his mind with a lowly gift shopper employee, Steven Grant.
So far, fans have spent a fair amount of time figuring out who Spector is at the same pace as Isaac's Grant does on-screen. While Marc is seasoned in the world of ancient Egyptian mythology, serving as an avatar for the god Khonshu (which grants him the ability to wield the Moon Knight armor), Steven is still very much new to the whole world of crime-fighting.
Viewers have seen everything in Steven's Moon Knight journey up to this point. But exactly how long has Marc Spector been moonlighting as a white-robed vigilante? Well, a line from Moon Knight's third episode points to his Moon Knight tenure being longer than some may think.
A Decade of Moon Knight?
As pointed out by ScreenRant, a line in the opening moments of Moon Knight Episode 3 hints at Marc Spector having been serving as the Fist of Khonshu for at least a decade.
At the start of Moon Knight's third episode, May Calamawy's Layla Abdallah El-Faouly mentions that she left Egypt "ten years" earlier, with Spector implicated in the departure. Calamawy's character is clearly based on the Marlene from the Moon Knight comics, whose father dies as a part of the hero's origins. While the hero's origin story has not been directly shown in the Disney+ series, this would mean he may have been assuming the role for over ten years at this point.
Moon Knight is suspected to take place in early 2025, meaning Marc first put on the Khonshu-endowed costume sometime in early 2015. This would mean that Marc Spector / Steven Grant had been in the superhero role longer than the MCU's Spider-Man and that he's sat on the sidelines for massive events like Thanos' Snap and the events of Captain America: Civil War.
Where was Marc Spector?
If this is in fact true, and Marc Spector has been playing super-powered dress-up for more than ten years, Marvel Studios has got some explaining to do. As mentioned above, some massive earth-shaking events have transpired in the supposed time Oscar Isaac's hero has been taking on an alter ego.
If he has in fact been working in the shadows this long, there has to be a good reason, right? And perhaps the last few episodes of Moon Knight will explore those years in some way (perhaps with an Avengers crossover), but for now, all fans can do is theorize.
As for why the hero may have avoided any interaction with the likes of Iron Man and Captain America, maybe he has been intentionally avoiding the big names in the Marvel universe. Marc's moral ambiguity has been on full display early on in Moon Knight, so maybe he was leaning into his mercenary roots in his early days as the hero.
It feels like Spector has been involved in some shady folks in his day. This could mean that he used his powers for nefarious causes, working in the shadows to take out his targets. If that were the case it would make a lot of sense as to why he may have avoided any interaction with the rest of the MCU.
Surely, even if this isn't the beginning for Moon Knight in the MCU, his future is just as bright as his theoretical past is shady.
