Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week.
For its latest Marvel series, Disney+ introduces a new character from the comic books rather than spinning off someone from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it has done previously (“Wanda Vision,” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier,” “Hawkeye”).
“Moon Knight,” streaming Wednesday, stars Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron in the latest “Star Wars” movies) as mild-mannered London clerk Steven Grant, who discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector (Isaac again) and the ability to shapeshift into the mummy-like garb of Moon Knight.
A befuddled Steven gets into many scrapes as he comes to understand his circumstances in the first two (of six) episodes, butting heads with Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) as the avatars of Egyptian gods come into conflict.
“It just seemed like there was a real opportunity to do something completely different in this, particularly in the MCU,” Isaac said in a virtual press conference Monday. “And to really focus on the internal struggle of this character — and to use Egyptian iconography and the superhero genre — to talk about this real internal struggle that this person is having, and also to create an indelible, unusual character, particularly with Steven Grant.”
Isaac said the opportunity to bring a new style of humor to the MCU also had its appeal.
“Marvel has done such an amazing job at combining action and comedy in such a great way, and I thought with Steven there was a chance to do a different type of comedy than we’ve seen,” he said. “Somebody that doesn’t know they’re funny. And to find the counterpoint of that with Mark in some ways leaning into a bit of the stereotype of the tortured, dark vigilante guy. But what makes him so special is that he has this little Englishman living inside him.”
Hawke said he appreciates that “Moon Knight” flips the script when it comes to whether the mentally ill character is the villain or hero.
“The history of movies (is) paved with storytellers using mental illness as a building block for the villain,” Hawke said. “We have a mentally ill hero, and that’s fascinating because we’ve now inverted the whole process. So now, as the antagonist, I can’t be crazy, because the hero’s crazy. So I have to find a sane, malevolent force. And that was an interesting riddle for me to figure out how to be in dynamics with what Oscar was doing.”
