"Moon Knight" might not be the most well-known Marvel character, but he's got a rich history
in the comics all the same.
With a new MCU series about to drop, what do you need to know about the character and
the show before you watch?
The official trailer for "Moon Knight" premiered during the Rams-Cardinals wild card game in
January 2022, and in addition to providing fans with a sneak peek of what the highly-anticipated
series might entail, it also revealed the show's release date.
"Moon Knight" is scheduled to premiere on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, and, like the rest
of Marvel's Phase 4 TV series, will stream exclusively on Disney+.
As of right now, it's unclear what time the series will become available for streaming,
but we can speculate that it will be similar to the release times of prior Marvel series
like "Hawkeye," "Loki," and "WandaVision," which all premiered their episodes at 3:00am
ET each week
We also know that "Moon Knight" will consist of six episodes, according to Kevin Feige.The
Marvel Studios boss also says that these episodes will run between 40-50 minutes, which is in
line with other Marvel Disney+ series.
Leading the cast of "Moon Knight" is none other than Oscar Isaac, who is set to play
the titular hero as well as his multitude of overlapping personalities.
Moon Knight's true identity is that of Marc Spector, a mercenary who suffers from dissociative
identity disorder, and constantly swaps between several distinctive identities as the series
goes on.
The interesting thing is that these identities essentially function as totally different
characters, and it'll be interesting to see how Isaac brings them each to life on screen.
Ethan Hawke is also set to appear in the series as a cult leader named Arthur Harrow, who
appears in the trailer and encourages Marc to…
"Embrace the chaos."
The series also features French actor Gaspard Ulliel, who appears posthumously as Anton
Mogart, the alter ego of the character known as Midnight Man.
Ulliel tragically passed away in a ski accident after filming, and "Moon Knight" was one of
the last projects he ever worked on.
Others confirmed to be in the series include F. Murray Abraham, who voices the Egyptian
god Khonshu, Lucy Thackerey, who plays a coworker who is close to one of Marc's many personalities,
and May Calamawy in an undisclosed role.
The official trailer for "Moon Knight" revealed quite a lot about the story and characters
that we'll be seeing throughout the series.
At the start of the trailer, Marc believes himself to be a man named Steven who works
at a museum, and admits that he "can't tell the difference between life and dreams."
He is tormented by strange visions and nightmares and doesn't even recognize the name "Marc"
when somebody calls him on the phone.
"What's wrong with you Marc?"
"Why did you call me Marc?"
Marc's story is as much about fighting literal bad guys as it is about fighting his inner
thoughts — and from what we see in this trailer, it seems like the latter is a losing
battle.
After a brief montage of Marc's disturbing visions, we finally get to see him don Moon
Knight's iconic white costume.
The suit literally materializes from thin air around Marc as he looks up at the moon,
indicating that similar to the comics, he receives his powers from the Egyptian God
of the Moon, Khonshu.
Finally, the trailer ends with Marc brutally beating some monstrous-looking creature before
turning to the camera.
It's an incredible trailer from start to finish, giving fans just enough to be excited about
For now, it looks like "Moon Knight" is going to have two villains: Dr. Arthur Harrow and
Midnight Man.
It seems as if the latter will be more of a secondary baddie, as Ethan Hawke's Harrow
looks to be the main villain of the series.
However, it's suspected that there's more than meets the eye here, given that Dr. Harrow
has only appeared in one comic book issue.
There's not that much story in the comic for the show to pull from, either.
Many fans believe the persona of Dr. Harrow is a red herring, and Hawke is actually playing
the Moon Knight villain Sun King.
A former Ravencroft Institute patient, Sun King has a base of loyal followers, much like
we see Hawke's Farrow have in the trailer.
Both Sun King and Moon Knight have connections to Egyptian gods, with the former obsessed
with Amon Ra and the latter who is blessed with powers by Khonshu.
It's also very possible that Hawke's character is an amalgamation of Dr. Harrow, Sun King,
and other famous Moon Knight villains.
Only time will tell.
What we do know for certain is the inspiration for Hawke's character.
In an interview with Seth Meyers, Hawke pointed to one famous cult leader as the inspiration
for his portrayal of Dr. Harrow.
"I've based my character on David Koresh."
"Have you really?"
"Yes."
"Moon Knight" will feature three directors — one of whom directed four episodes, while
the remaining pair directed the other two.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Mohamed Diab is helming four episodes solo, marking
the first time he's directed an English-language project.
Diab is known in his home country of Egypt for projects like "Cairo 678" and "Clash,"
but "Moon Knight" marks his first Hollywood project.
Per Variety, the famous directing duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorehead tackled the other
two episodes.
The indie-horror visionaries don't have the longest resumes in the business, but their
work speaks for itself.
They directed 2019's "Synchronic" with Anthony Mackie, an episode of Jordan Peele's "The
Twilight Zone" reboot, and 2017's "The Endless," in which they also starred.
The higher-ups at Marvel Studios clearly have been impressed with the work they've seen
from Benson and Moorehead, as the pair have also been brought on to direct "a majority"
of the episodes from the upcoming "Loki" Season 2, according to Deadline.
So far, every MCU series on Disney+ has been scripted by a different writer.
"Moon Knight" will introduce head writer Jeremy Slater to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but
this is far from Slater's first dip in the superhero pool.
He penned the script to the 2015 "Fantastic Four" movie, he's also one of the creators
of Netflix's "The Umbrella Academy."
If "Moon Knight" turns out to be anything like Slater's initial pitch, we're in for
a treat.
He told Empire,
"'Raiders of the Lost Ark' was actually a big reference when I first pitched.
How can we tell this dark, complex story but also inject some big, fun, supernatural, Amblin-style
magic at the same time?"
A lot of trust has been put into Slater recently, which gives us a lot of hope for "Moon Knight."
He's also penning the script for "Mortal Kombat 2."
Leading into the premiere, there's no clear answer on where "Moon Knight" fits in the
official timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As of now, "Hawkeye" is the latest show on the timeline, taking place in December 2024.
It's entirely possible that "Moon Knight" is the first MCU project to occur in 2025
if it takes place right after "Hawkeye."
It's also possible "Moon Knight" happens sometime during 2023, as do two other Disney+ live-action
series.
"WandaVision" begins three weeks after the conclusion of "Avengers: Endgame," while "The
Falcon and the Winter Soldier" is about six months out.
"Loki" kicks off in 2012, but about 99 percent of the series occurs in a space outside of
time, so it really doesn't have a solid place on the timeline.
"Eternals," "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," and "Spider-Man: No Way Home"
all take place before "Hawkeye," with "No Way Home" definitely landing in 2023.
Long story short, "Moon Knight" can fit anywhere.
Every MCU-Disney+ series has its own identity, but "Moon Knight" is going to really shake
things up in a big way.
Kevin Feige admitted to Empire that things are taking a major left turn with "Moon Knight,"
suggesting it's the darkest series in the MCU to date.
He told the outlet,
"It's been fun to work with Disney+ and see the boundaries shifting on what we're able
to do.
There are moments when Moon Knight is wailing on another character, and it is loud and brutal,
and the knee-jerk reaction is, 'We're gonna pull back on this, right?'
We're not pulling back.
There's a tonal shift.
This is a different thing."
So far, every MCU series has held a TV-14 rating, including the animated project "What
If...?"
The way Feige describes "Moon Knight" and its brutality sounds like the series might
have earned a more adult rating than its predecessors, but Disney+ has it labeled with a TV-14 rating
on its website.
One thing is clear: "Moon Knight" is certainly going to push the barriers of how far a TV-14
show can go.
For now, it looks like there won't be a second season of "Moon Knight," but that's based
on a small comment made by Oscar Isaac.
When speaking with Jared Leto for Variety's Actors on Actors series, Isaac mentioned that
"Moon Knight" was a "limited series."
Limited means just that, so for now, fans likely shouldn't get their hopes up for a
second season.
"WandaVision" was also confirmed to be just a limited series, but that's not the case
for all MCU live-action shows.
So far, "Loki" is the only Disney+ series from Marvel to have a confirmed Season 2.
This announcement came in the credits of the first season's finale episode, so if we are
getting a follow-up for "Moon Knight," its finale could be the episode that holds all
the answers.
However, just because there might not be a Season 2 of the series, that doesn't mean
we won't be seeing Moon Knight again in the MCU.
Up to this point, the title characters of every MCU series had already appeared in multiple
movies, so there was always the assumption we'd see them again on the big screen.
Moon Knight is the first title character to get their origin story in a Disney+ series,
and his future afterward is slightly unknown.
Since we know we probably won't be getting a Season 2, we'd have to hope Oscar Isaac's
Marc Spector would show up in future MCU flicks — and it looks like those hopes are due
to be fulfilled.
Kevin Feige confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that Moon Knight would appear in an MCU film
after the series.
This is also the case for Jennifer Walters from "She-Hulk" and Kamala Khan from "Ms.
Marvel."
For now, your guess is as good as ours as far as where Moon Knight might appear next,
but hopefully, we'll get some clues during the show's six-episode run.
He isn't one of the characters rumored to appear in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse
of Madness," and there have been no rumblings of him showing up in "Thor: Love and Thunder"
or "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever."
There's no shortage of upcoming MCU movies, though, so here's hoping we'll get more Moon
Knight sooner than later.
Cameos in the MCU are common these days, and the Disney+ Marvel series are no exception.
James Rhodes popped in an Emmy-nominated scene in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier"; Wilson
Fisk made his MCU debut in "Hawkeye"; the X-Men's version of Pietro Maximoff sort-of
cameoed in "WandaVision"; and Chris Hemsworth had a very sneaky voice cameo in "Loki" as
a trapped Frog Thor.
Needless to say, we're expecting someone we know to show up in "Moon Knight."
Rumors abound that Jon Bernthal could be reprising his role as Frank Castle, aka the Punisher,
in "Moon Knight."
Redditors have been hoping for this cameo for a while now, especially given that Frank
Castle and Moon Knight have a history in the comics.
With Vincent D'Onofrio showing up on Disney+ in an old Netflix role, it's certainly possible.
There's also speculation Mark Ruffalo might be appearing as Bruce Banner in "Moon Knight"
after he was spotted in Budapest, Hungary during the same time the series was filming
there.
If that's true, it seems like there'd be no better MCU hero to teach Moon Knight how to
control his emotional issues.
"That's my secret, Cap, I'm always angry."
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