Black Panther's Success Changed Marvel's Moon Knight Series In One Major Way

"Black Panther" was praised for a number of reasons when it was released, but perhaps the film's biggest highlight was just how much of a big bad, Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger was. The ostracized Wakandan who returned home with different plans for the nation's future was one of those rare and wonderful things that only great stories have — a villain you could relate to.

But while Coogler's comic book movie was breaking new ground, another Marvel story that was in development was concerned about retreading over old turf. In an interview with ComicBook, "Moon Knight" showrunner Jeremy Slater explained that they originally had a different bad guy mapped out to take on the Fist of Khonshu, but had to mix things up when the long-lost member of the Panther tribe appeared on the scene.

"The problem we kept running into was 'Black Panther' had just come out and Michael B. Jordan was so damn good as Killmonger in that movie, that he casts such a big shadow," explained Slater. As a result, it demanded a reworking of Moon Knight's initial rival in the show, Raul Bushman. In the comics, Bushman was Spector's former team leader, who turned on our hero, leaving him for dead before Khonshu picked him for more important obligations. A closer inspection of the character, however, highlighted a backstory that Killmonger had already told and forcing Slater to make some tweaks.

If there were a vacancy within the MCU for a cold-blooded killer with military history, Killmonger and Bushman would undoubtedly find themselves in the interview process, presumably after killing the rest of the competition. As Slater puts it, "Because Bushman doesn't have superpowers, his skill is he is a very good mercenary. He is a great fighter. He is lethal with any sort of weapon, and he has this tactile-military training. He is incredibly smart, but all of that also describes Erik Killmonger." It's because of this that the showrunner feared that comparisons would be made between the big bad facing off against Moon Knight and the critically acclaimed one that had almost taken out T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman).

As a result, Bushman was only given a passing mention in the show in place of Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow, who similarly battled the show's hero to what was originally intended. "The goal was if Marc Spector was the Avatar of Khonshu, we were going to take Bushman and make him the avatar of a different Egyptian god and let them duke it out." That doesn't sound too far away from what the "Moon Knight" finale ended up with, and perhaps that's for the better. Harrow's cult-like presence provided a more cerebral foe that meant for an easier exploration of Marc Spector's world of ancient gods and alternate identities, making a good case that perhaps Bushman getting clipped was the right choice after all.