Oscar Isaac joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe next month as he takes on the role of the eponymous hero in the Disney+ series Moon Knight, and as we’ve seen from the trailers and promos, this doesn’t look to be your typical Marvel Studios fare.
Not only does the tone feel more akin to Netflix’s Defenders shows (with Marvel Studios supremo Kevin Feige describing the series recently as “brutal”), but Isaac’s Marc Spector looks to be one of Marvel’s most complex heroes, suffering as he does from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) which results in multiple identities.
And it’s this complexity which drew Isaac to the role, with the actor revealing to Empire that he’d considered walking away from mega-franchises following his experiences on X-Men: Apocalypse and the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, only for Moon Knight to offer him the opportunity to do” something really fucking nutty on a major stage”.
“Often on these big movies it can feel like you’re building the plane on the runway,” said Isaac. “The idea of getting back to ‘handmade’ films, character studies. I was desperate for that feeling.”[Moon Knight] felt ‘handmade.’ And it’s the first legitimate Marvel character-study since Iron Man. I thought, ‘Maybe I can hijack this thing. Maybe this is the chance to do something really fucking nutty on a major stage.'”
“What I love most about this thing is that it’s an exploration of a mind that doesn’t know itself,” Isaac continued. “A human being that doesn’t know his own brain. I found that really moving: what the mind is capable of as far as survival. But the workload was massive: the technical challenge of embodying these different characters, physically, the way I manifest my body. It required a lot of energy.”
We’ll get to see Isaac as Moon Knight when the series debuts on Disney+ at the end of March, but in the meantime here’s some new images from the show…
Moon Knight follows Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee who becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life. Steven discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.
Featuring in the cast of Moon Knight are Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector/Moon Knight, Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow, Gaspard Ulliel as Midnight Man, Lucy Thackeray as Donna, and May Calamawy in an as-yet-unrevealed role.
Moon Knight is set to premiere on Disney+ on March 30th 2022.
