'Moon Knight' Episode 3 Had a Sly Connection to Kang the Conqueror

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

The following story contains mild spoilers for Moon Knight through Episode 3.


Moon Knight has represented a break in the way Marvel Studios is approaching the series that land on Disney+. Unlike WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If...?, and Hawkeye before it, Moon Knight has been the first series to introduce viewers to entirely new characters who haven't been featured in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film before. It's a difficult approach, and one that Marvel clearly took its time to get to—and made sure it had two major stars, in hero Oscar Isaac and villain Ethan Hawke, before diving in.

Part of the biggest mystery of Moon Knight, then, has been figuring out where the events of this story take place within the larger established universe. And while that's been a bit of a mystery to this point—there weren't any references to "The Blip," or The Avengers, or anything of the sort in the first two episodes—there were two connections in Episode 3 that let us know for sure that we're in that same world.

The first was a quick ADR'd line from Bek,Anton Mogart's henchman, about a previous trip to Madripoor with Marc Spector's adventurous wife, Layla. Madripoor, of course, is the hive of scum and villainy location that we saw last year in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and will certainly see again. But another reference in the episode was far more subtle, and was a hint to let us know that Marvel's new big bad villain is currently out there and lurking.

Moon Knight makes a subtle reference to Kang the Conqueror

Early on in Moon Knight episode 3, titled "The Friendly Type," an as-of-now unidentified third Marc/Steven personality has a fight with some of Arthur Harrow's followers. In this fight scene (and again later, when Marc takes control of the body and confronts the same group), you can quickly and briefly see that one of the followers has an image on the back of his jacket. This image, as a TikTok user named @perfect.dodge pointed out, resembles that of Rama-Tut, who in the Marvel Comics was another variant of our new friend Kang the Conqueror who went back in time and became a Pharoah in ancient Egypt.

Of course, Kang made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut—in the form of his "He Who Remains" variant persona—in the season finale of Loki last year, played by Jonathan Majors. Kang the Conqueror himself is set to make his debut in next year's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, but we do fully expect to see him again whether it's a surprise cameo or a credits stinger before then.

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

You can see the back of the guy's jacket has a similar headpiece and beardpiece to the images in the TikTok and above comic cover of Rama-Tut—and in the New Rockstars video breakdown, they confirm that Moon Knight crew members have said that the jacket was an intentional Kang easter egg.

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

Will Kang make an appearance in Moon Knight?

Photo credit: Marvel Studios
Photo credit: Marvel Studios

Now, that's a good question. What's set Moon Knight apart has been the fact that it's been the quasi-origin story of a new—and reasonably complex—new character. We should probably let Marc/Steven get on their feet and defeat their first villain before getting too twisty and involved with larger-universe MCU stuff, but it does seem inevitable that will happen sooner rather than later.

With the beginning of the Moon Knight story taking place in London, it would make sense for Marc/Steven etc. to eventually link up with some of our heroes who are already stationed there, most notable for this purpose being Blade (Mahershala Ali) and Dane Whitman (Kit Harington), who linked up during one of the Eternals end credits stingers. (Dane and Steven Grant are also in a similar place of being a relatively regular guy who may suddenly have all sorts of powers and responsibilities).

But those heroes will need a villain, right? All signs have pointed towards Kang being our next Thanos-level overarching baddie, and yet to this point we've still only had one official appearance of him, and none since that first Loki appearance. Maybe we see Rama-Tut in one of the final episodes of Moon Knight just as a way for Marvel to remind us that this multiversal, universe-threatening villain is still out there. And he takes many forms.

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