Kit Harington Not Returning To Marvel?
Is the MCU abandoning its Black Knight character before he really even begins? That’s the question raised by a recent interview snippet tweeted by the Kit Harington Updates Twitter account two days ago. The clip shows actor Kit Harington expressing his hope that Marvel finds a place for Dane Whitman (the Black Knight) in the future but that, as far as he knows, there are no immediate plans for the character to return to the MCU.
Kit Harington says he doesn’t know of any immediate plans for him to return to the MCU as Dane Whitman, aka The Black Knight.
Harington was participating in a Superhero Comic Con Q&A when he was asked about the future of the Dane Whitman/Black Knight character. “Are you Black Knight?” Kit was asked point blank by the Q&A’s moderator, to which Harrington replied that he’s pretty sure that was Marvel’s intention, but at this stage, he knows as much as the rest of us.
The question was referring to a post-credit scene at the end of The Eternals where the Game of Thrones star opens a chest containing a magical weapon known as the Ebony Blade. The sword has traditionally been wielded by an hero known as The Black Knight, one of whose identities in the comics was Harington’s Eternals character Dane Whitman.
The scene in question ends with future Blade star Mahershala Ali speaking to Whitman from offscreen and asking the potential Black Knight if he’s sure he’s ready to wield the sword.
Ali’s involvement in the scene naturally led fans to assume that Kit Harington would make an appearance in Marvel’s upcoming Blade, something Harington says was never actually the plan.
This begs the question, of course, why have Blade in the scene at all if Dane Whitman’s destiny doesn’t lie with the legendary Daywalker? One possibility might have something to do with the Ebony Blade’s “blood curse” and half-vampire Blade’s experience with cursed blood.
There’s a chance that Ali’s Blade is going to mentor Kit Harington’s Whitman on the use of the weapon in an as-yet-unknown Marvel film somewhere down the line.
The Ebony Blade consumes part of the wielder’s soul when it sheds blood, something that would explain Dane’s reluctance in the scene to open the chest containing the weapon.
There’s a chance that Ali’s Blade is going to mentor Kit Harington’s Whitman on the use of the weapon in an as-yet-unknown Marvel film somewhere down the line. While that would cover why Harington isn’t slated to appear in Blade, it still doesn’t explain why Marvel hasn’t announced any non-Blade plans for the character.
The Black Knight might not be a household name on the level of Spider-Man or Iron Man he’s still a pretty big deal in the comics, even leading The Avengers at one point.
For Marvel to introduce Dane Whitman into the MCU and then not do anything with him whatsoever would be a serious mistake on the studio’s part. What’s more likely is that they just don’t know what to do with the character yet.
Black Knight Was Almost In Moon Knight
Kit Harington was supposed to appear as Dane Whitman in Marvel’s Moon Knight series but head writer Jeremy Slater ended up nixing the character’s involvement—for a good reason. As Slater explained it there was no room in the short 6-episode series to introduce two major superheroes, and he wasn’t willing to shoehorn Dane Whitman into the story unless he could do it right.
Slater explained that if Kit Harington showed up in the Marvel series and didn’t “suit up and didn’t kick ass,” it would anger Slater as a fan. “I want to see him go full Black Knight,” Slater further explained, something he just wasn’t prepared to do given his limited time to tell Moon Knight’s story.
None of this means, of course, that Kit Harington won’t show up again in the Marvel universe eventually. Liv Tyler, who played Betty Ross in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk, is returning to the MCU after a 15-year hiatus in next year’s Captain America: Brave New World.
Compared to that, worrying about Kit Harington’s future at Marvel when Eternals only came out two years ago seems a little bit premature.
