MCU’s Black Knight Can Finally Deliver A Great King Arthur Movie

Marvel’s upcoming film Eternals film features the character Dane Whitman as one of the Eternals’ love interests – and since Whitman is better known by Marvel comics readers as the Black Knight, he is the perfect character for an adaptation of the King Arthur stories. Although Whitman’s comic book story began with him studying physics in the modern day, upon inheriting a castle and the Ebony Blade, a magical relic, he became the superhero Black Knight. As Whitman’s story progressed, he had an arc spent in Arthurian times, possessing the body of his distant ancestor, who was also a bearer of the blade.

The Black Knight’s story is inherently tied to Arthurian legend. The Ebony Blade that each of the Black Knights has wielded was forged by Merlin from meteoric iron, and it is projected to make an appearance in the Eternals film. With the Eternals projected to have a very different look from other Marvel movies featuring scenes with natural lighting and a fantasy feel, it fits thematically for items like Whitman’s magic sword to appear. If the sword’s origins are not changed to adapt it to existing lore within the MCU, this would mean that the Arthurian legends are true within the universe – not entirely beyond the realm of possibility, as sorcery and witchcraft are both very much confirmed aspects of the universe.

A Marvel adaptation of the King Arthur legend could explore both commonly known parts of Arthurian legend, while not shying away from the fantastical. Movies like Thor showed giants visiting Earth, and the powers given to knights in Arthurian lore are very much in keeping with the abilities of superheroes featured in other MCU films. With a number of directors expressing an appetite to tackle the knights of the round table, including recent discussion of Zack Snyder’s desire to make a King Arthur movie, and Guy Ritchie’s recent adaptation with King Arthur, the winds of change appear to be blowing due Camelot.

The Black Knight Story Connects Marvel With The Arthurian Legend

Dane Whitman’s story as the Black Knight in the comics doesn’t follow King Arthur’s directly, but there is a great deal of intersection between the two narratives. This could give Marvel a fresh angle on the Arthurian legends, and allow for the stories of Camelot to be viewed from an outsider’s perspective. If Marvel did choose to follow Whitman’s comic arc and send the superhero back through time, it would also give the storytellers a useful tool – an outsider character, to serve as an audience stand-in, to whom setting information and narrative details could be explained.

In addition to Whitman himself, other MCU figures could easily show up to lend a hand. Thor and Loki’s timelines would both comfortable intersect and show additional background of these characters during their younger years, and the characters being introduced in Eternals have also wandered in and out of history. Tying these characters to some of the feats of Arthurian legend could allow Marvel’s adaptation of the King Arthur stories to have a fantasy feel, while still feeling like they were a part of the broader Marvel universe. It would also give the Black Knight further reason to act as an outsider – thus preventing future knowledge from contaminating the time stream.

A Swords And Sorcery Film Would Allow Marvel To Explore A New Genre

Although films like Thor and Doctor Strange have touched on magic when exploring the mechanisms of their heroes’ powers, the Marvel films have been mostly content within the field of science fiction. While this may change – WandaVision signified an appetite for Phase 4 to explain magic within the MCU – the incredible technology and near-future setting of the MCU films sets a very particular tone for the universe. Adapting the Black Knight comics that explored the pseudo-medieval fantasy of Arthur and the round table would allow the MCU to touch on a setting that was not technologically advanced, and which relies almost exclusively on magic for its incredible elements, advancing the very goal set for Phase 4.

Such a setting could explore a more pastoral aesthetic as well – allowing for a more brutal superhero fight with fewer risks to nearby civilians, across swaths of the countryside. The Ebony Blade’s powers include an ability to cut through anything, and a resistance to magic, which could allow magic users in the MCU to cut loose without having an inevitable victory through overwhelming advantage. While recent MCU properties have been anything but squeamish about civilians and bystanders – WandaVision‘s Scarlet Witch victims inside the hex as a notable example – this would preserve the non-monstrous reputations of characters who got involved.

A Marvel Adaptation Could Get The Story Right

The Arthurian legends have been adapted a number of times, but as they were written by a number of authors in different countries over the span of centuries, there are usually cuts made in adaptation in order to present something like a coherent story. Conflicts between storytellers have, for instance, had “Arthur’s bravest knight” be simultaneously Lancelot, Gawain, Gallahad, and Kaye. MCU writers certainly have experience adapting a complex, sometimes conflicting story with many facets to a coherent narrative, and using Dane Whitman as an audience stand-in could ask and answer the questions about such a conflict if they wished to explore it.

Seeing the Arthurian legend through the eyes of an outsider could solve an otherwise impossible problem with faithful retellings of Arthurian myth. With the Black Knight interacting with the Arthurian figures only when it is narratively important that he do so, stories and legends that make less sense could be stories retold to Whitman, or simply glossed over as events for which the Black Knight was not personally present. Therefore, all stories of Camelot could be “true” – for a given value of truth, and solely from an outsider’s perspective.

Given the opportunities that trying their hand at this type of movie would provide Marvel – and the apparent wish of movie goers to see such an adaptation – it would seem to be a sensible project to pursue. With Warner Bros plan to make a King Arthur shared universe now falling by the wayside, the most successful shared universe in modern film could very well step up to the plate to take their own swing. They may or may not – but whether Whitman’s role as the Black Knight is explored in Eternals or not, his inclusion in the film as a supporting character opens the door for Marvel to make an excellent King Arthur adaptation if they want to.

About The Author

Drew Dunlop
(82 Articles Published)

Drew Dunlop is a short story author, and a feature writer for Screen Rant. A former movie review blogger, Drew has spent a great deal of his adult life writing and talking about films and comics. Now, he writes and talks about comic book films – DC Cinematic Universe, and Marvel Cinematic Universe films.

A hobbyist chef, Drew enjoys the company of his partner, his parrot, and his philodendron.

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