It's OK. You can say it. Disney+ day—which promised to give us a boatload of announcements and teasers for its upcoming project—was a little bit of a bummer. Most of the event merely reminded us of the bazillion superhero TV shows the Mouse House has in the works rather than revealing much of anything new. The whole shindig was capped off by fleeting first looks of Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight, which got the most airtime.
By the looks of it, Moon Knight, which stars Oscar Isaac, might be the the Marvel Cinematic Universe's darkest entry yet. There's a spooky voiceover from the actor, with a glimpse of him beating the snot out of someone, roaming around in the night, and having identity issues. (More on that later.) Since the teaser is low on plot beats, let's run down everything you need to know about the upcoming Disney+ series.
When Will Moon Knight Debut on Disney+?
Moon Knight has been trolling around Budapest, taking over its fine arts museums, apparently, and filming since April. Marvel is a well-oiled machine nowadays with its filming and release schedules, so if Moon Knight is filming now—given what we've seen with past Disney+ series—we'll likely see a debut sometime during the first half of 2022.
What Can We Expect From Moon Knight?
Like we said, the plan for Moon Knight is a bit obscure. So try to follow along here: The character Moon Knight first appeared in the comics back in 1975 as a boxer-turned-U.S.-Marine-turned mercenary named Marc Spector. He gets wrapped up in some comic-book shenanigans—running into Khonshu, the ancient Egyptian Moon god—and becomes the god's acolyte of sorts on Earth. Here's the most interesting bit: Spector has dissociative identity disorder, so he takes on multiple characters and personas throughout his adventures. So Moon Knight is a little bit like Batman meets Split. We glimpse a tiny bit of this in the teaser, with Spector's voiceover revealing that he can't tell the difference between his "waking life" and his dreams.
So you can imagine why the show would prove a spotlight vehicle for Issac, who's just a bit wary of multimillion-dollar Disney projects following his seemingly regrettable time as Poe Dameron in the recent Star Wars trilogy. We don't know too much about how the MCU plans to approach Moon Knight, but in August, fans started circulating what might (or very well might not) be a look at what's to come:
Something we know for sure is that Ethan Hawke will play the villain of the series, though it's TBD on which one of Spector's antagonists he will be. Egypt native Mohammed Diab will direct Moon Knight and Ramy's May Calamawy will star in another yet-to-be-named role. We'll keep this story updated if and when the mystery behind Moon Knight starts to reveal itself. While you wait, here's Hawke about how Isaac enticed him to join the project.
“A lot of it is Oscar to me, to be honest with you," Hawke said on The Watch podcast. "I find him to be a very exciting player in my field. I like what he’s doing with his life. He reminds me of the actors, when I first arrived at New York, that I looked up to. Oscar’s younger than me, and I like the way he carries himself, and I like the way he thinks. And in general, good things happen when you’re in the room with people that you like the way they think, right?”
