Despite Thor: Love and Thunder and Moon Knight not feeling very close together within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the writers of each property collaborated pretty closely to ensure their storylines didn't clash.
That's because the one consistent element across the incoming fourth Thor film and the Moon Knight Disney+ series is the inclusion of gods. Thor is, of course, set amid Norse mythology – and the new film introduces a take on Greek myth, and new villain Gorr the God Butcher. Moon Knight, meanwhile, features multiple Egyptian gods.
The series' head writer, Jeremy Slater, told The Playlist that, while Moon Knight was allowed to exist in its own space in the MCU and doesn't really have strong connections to the rest of the universe, his team worked with the Thor writers to ensure their gods slotted together in the overall lore.
"Marvel was great about giving us our own little corner and our own little space and saying, 'okay, the Egyptian gods can be their own thing,' especially since we’re only seeing three of them on screen over the course of this story.
"But we did speak extensively with the producers of Thor: Love and Thunder just to find out what they were doing with gods in their story, to make sure that we weren’t going to be contradicting anything. At the time, all of the release dates were still up in the air, and we didn’t know if we would be coming out before Thor: Love and Thunder or following up Love and Thunder."
Moon Knight is the first MCU Disney+ series to not feature any major cameos referencing other properties, but Slater explained this wasn't always the case. He and the writing team originally had plans to connect the series to the new Thor film, with different versions ready to go depending on which one released first.
The team decided against any references in the end, however, because "these release dates are going to be determined by much larger factors than whatever’s happening in our show," Slater said. "So the safest thing to protect both of these properties is just to give them some distance.”
That's not to say they'll never cross over, as they obviously do exist within the same universe already. "Marvel is constantly expanding the boundaries of the MCU, and it’s getting bigger, and it’s weirder, and it’s giving us a lot more runway to tell cool stories in the future," he added. "I could definitely see some of these gods crossing over into other properties or showing up in other forms in future shows."
Thor: Love and Thunder will release on July 8 and sees Chris Hemsworth's character take on Gorr the God Butcher with the help of Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, who makes her return to the MCU as the Mighty Thor.
Moon Knight's six episode series, on the other hand, wrapped in early May and received a positive reception. In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "Moon Knight, featuring a brilliant performance by Oscar Isaac, is massive platter of out-there ideas that succeeds more than it stalls."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.