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We have to imagine that, as the public responded so positively to Black Panther villain Killmonger (played by Sinners' Michael B. Jordan), Marvel Studios was pretty dang pleased. Well, for the most part. There was at least one corner of the House of Ideas that was a little frustrated, not because they didn't think Killmonger had done well, but because they were trying to achieve their own, similar villain. That sect of creatives was the team behind Moon Knight, who it was recently revealed had to completely rewrite their villain... all due to his similarities to Black Panther's.

The Moon Knight creative team was led by head writer Jeremy Slater, who recently sat down with ComicBook.com to discuss early plans for the Oscar Isaac-starring mystical Disney+ series. During the course of the discussion, Slater's interviewer asked him about abandoned storylines that were originally part of the show's blueprints.

"We really tried to make Bushman work as the principal antagonist," said Slater, "For the first couple of drafts. The goal was [that] 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."

(In case you don't know, the Marvel Comics character to whom Slater is referring is Raoul Armand 'Raul' Bushman, a mercenary and former partner of Moon Knight's alter ego (uh, one of them), Marc Spector. Bushman is name-checked in the series, but didn't actually end of showing up. The honor of being the show's primary protagonist went to Arthur Harrow, played by Ethan Hawke, and Slater described way.

"The problem we kept running into," he explained, "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. 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."

(I mean, James Gunn made it work between Bloodsport and Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad, just saying.)

"That was sort of the problem," Slater continues, "[...] Killmonger casts such a large shadow that everything we wrote wound up feeling a little derivative. 'This is fun, but it reminds us of how much fun that other guy was.' But we had a cool storyline where the two of them were going to go to war beneath a pyramid in a bunch of old booby-trapped burial chambers, and a series of them trying to murder each other in the dark."

Maybe someday, when other memorable villains broaden the MCU's horizons (though let's be honest, nobody's forgetting about Killmonger anytime soon), we'll get that take on the Moon Knight villain. Until then, both Black Panther and the series in question are streaming on Disney+.

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters