There’s a new Marvel hero coming to Disney+ in just over two months, but you may not have heard of Moon Knight before. Neither has Oscar Isaac’s Steven Grant in the first trailer for the Moon Knight original series. And that’s a problem because Steven is Moon Knight. And he’s also a former mercenary named Marc Spector. If he has a true identity, Marc is the name and persona that he was born with. But as Steven, he’s simply a “mild-mannered gift-shop employee” who is suffering from a dissociative identity disorder.
Unfortunately for Steven, he can’t hide from Moon Knight forever.
The trailer, which bears a darker feel than any MCU series to date, appears to suggest that most of the story will take place from Steven’s point of view. It also drops some hints about the nature of Moon Knight himself. The character has been called “Marvel’s Batman” since he was created by writer Doug Moench (who worked on Batman for DC through much of his career) and artist Don Perlin in 1975. And there are some correlations between the two since Marc Spector and Bruce Wayne are both incredibly wealthy and they both fight crime by night. But the biggest point of divergence between them is that Moon Knight is the champion of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon. In a few moments of this new footage, Khonshu actually appears to Steven in the flesh … so to speak.
Can Steven’s visions be taken at face value? The show isn’t trying to hide his mental illness, so even Khonshu’s presence may simply be the delusion of one man’s mind. However, that can’t explain Moon Knight himself. In this incarnation of the character, his supernatural connections have been brought to the forefront. He even seems to make his costume appear around his body at will. Additionally, it may not be a coincidence that it surrounds him and binds him like a mummy’s wrap.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a superhero show without someone to fight. In this case, Ethan Hawke is co-headlining the series as Arthur Harrow, a charismatic cult leader who encourages Steven to embrace his inner chaos. Arthur has no comic book counterpart, but some rumors suggest that he could be Dracula. That said, Arthur’s daylight scenes in the trailer seem to disprove that fan theory.
Moon Knight also features Gaspard Ulliel and May Calamawy in leading roles. The first episode will premiere on Disney+ on Wednesday, March 30.
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