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Moon Knight's Cut Thor Reference Made Love & Thunder's Villain Scarier
Moon Knight cut a quick reference to Thor: Love and Thunder's villain, but keeping the mention in would have made Gorr the God Butcher even scarier.

Moon Knight‘s writer has revealed that the series cut a reference to Thor: Love and Thunder, one that made the movie’s villain even scarier. For the most part, Moon Knight stays disconnected from the MCU, and that fact along with the ever-shifting release dates of the movies explains why the reference was cut. However, Moon Knight should have kept the reference to Thor: Love and Thunder in, as it would have greatly helped the upcoming movie sequel.

Moon Knight and Thor: Love and Thunder share one major element: gods. Moon Knight introduced the Egyptian gods, mostly focusing on Khonshu, Ammit, and the Ennead. The Thor series has featured the Norse gods since its beginning, and Thor: Love and Thunder is set to introduce the Greek gods, including Zeus as played by Russell Crowe. With all these gods running around, Thor: Love and Thunder is also introducing a fierce villain who wants to take these deities down: Gorr the God Butcher. The MCU is now populated by a diverse set of pantheons, and with Gorr set on taking them all out, all the gods should be afraid.

Writer Jeremy Slater confirmed that Moon Knight was going to reference Gorr the God Butcher in one of two ways. If the series came out before Thor: Love and ThunderMoon Knight would feature gods commenting on being worried that Gorr would come after them. If the show came out after the movieit would have gods talking about the havoc Gorr caused before being defeated. Although these references were cut, Moon Knight should have left them in. By allowing the show to set up Gorr, he would have felt like a much bigger threat in Thor: Love and Thunder. Rather than Gorr feeling like a self-contained villain, he would have seemed fiercer, scaring even the gods of Egypt. Many MCU antagonists have felt like villains of the week, but Gorr could have been built up to be even bigger if he had been referenced in Moon Knight.

While Moon Knight does have Easter eggs and references to the MCU, storywise it stays fairly disconnected. This sense of separation was appreciated, as Moon Knight wasn’t constantly talking about Tony Stark or the Snap like many other MCU projects. Moon Knight‘s loose MCU connection is one of the reasons the Gorr reference was cut; the writers didn’t want to unnaturally shove in a reference. Despite this, however, the reference should have stayed. A reference to Gorr could have been made in one line, whereas many other MCU tropes take up entire scenes. While it doesn’t take much to set up the character, the pay-off would have been huge. Furthermore, Moon Knight explicitly referenced different afterlifes in the MCU, so one Thor: Love and Thunder setup would have fit in fine. While Moon Knight‘s disconnect from the MCU is mostly a good thing, it would have been worth acknowledging Thor: Love and Thunder in order to make Gorr a better character.

Gorr the God Butcher is incredibly powerful, so not having the Egyptian gods fear him actually takes away from his character. While it is understandable why the reference was cut, it works so seamlessly that it should have stayed in. Moon Knight‘s cut Thor: Love and Thunder reference makes Gorr scarier and gives him a greater presence while not taking away from the show at all.