Oscar Isaac Is Having An Identity Crisis In The Latest Moon Knight Spot
Marvel fans, it's that time again. Forget sleep, because "Moon Knight" will air in the middle of the night tonight (well, technically, early morning) for American viewers, and similarly inconvenient times in other places. Don't get me wrong. I am always happy to watch Oscar Isaac in anything he does. I'm particularly thrilled to watch Marvel take another lesser-known character from the comics and make them a superstar. I just wish it wasn't in the wee hours, appropriate though it seems for a character with this name.
Today Marvel has put out a new spot called "Welcome the Knight," which gives us a look at the identity crisis of one Steven Grant, a mild-mannered museum shop employee played by Isaac. I've seen the first four episodes, and I'm so excited to finally be able to talk about how much fun this series is. In the spot, Steven is sitting in a restaurant, wondering what day it is. Then we see him lock himself into ankle restraints to prevent him from getting out of bed while sleeping. A sleep disorder? Nope. Steven has dissociative identity disorder, and another version of himself, Marc Spector, has a very different life while Steven dreams.
What we're seeing in this clip is that the life Marc is leading at night is bleeding into Steven's and that Marc is better able to defend himself. He wants to take over their shared body when dangers threaten, but he doesn't really want to reveal who he is to Steven. There is yet another voice in that human though. It's the voice of Khonshu, the Egyptian God of the Moon (voice of F. Murray Abraham) who can grant powers to the body he inhabits, and sends that body to do some jobs for him.
The dark side of the moon ... knight
Though there isn't that much in this clip that we haven't seen before, we're getting more of a sense of Steven's panic at what is happening to him, and a look at Layla (May Calamawy), who is one of the highlights of the episodes I've seen. I won't spoil the connection between Steven/Marc/Khonshu and Layla here, but I very much enjoy it.
We're also shown a bit of the villain Harrow (Ethan Hawke), who tells Steven that he shouldn't "fear and despise" his other identities. I mean, sure, but if I'm the one waking up in random places and unable to tell you what day it is ... you know what? That second one is actually a thing that has happened to me since the world exploded, so maybe I get it more than realized.
Is this the best Disney+ show? No. My controversial take on that is "Hawkeye" and "The Mandalorian," but I have really enjoyed what I've seen so far. I mean, it's Oscar Isaac playing two wildly different characters, one with a crazy accent that actually works way better than it sounds in the trailer. It's Ethan Hawke (and his haircut) playing a creepily reasonable bad guy (the very best kind), and a very odd-looking suit that I now want to see all over Comic-Con. I love that this is a rather more self-contained Marvel show than a lot of the others. I was getting tired of each show being an advertisement for the next. I don't feel like I have to do homework or know years of comic book history to enjoy what I'm seeing. While there isn't a lot of new information in this spot, it does get me excited to watch the first episode again, sleep or no sleep.
"Moon Knight" premieres on March 30, 2022, on Disney+.