The Best Characters In Moon Knight Ranked
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Disney+'s "Moon Knight."
It's a bit of a cheat to say "Moon Knight" is like nothing else the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done before, because that's a riff on their own marketing. However, the Disney+ limited series lives up to it, providing a bizarre, deeply psychological platform for some of the best actors of our time to just go all the way off. Oscar Isaac plays multiples of himself so well that we forget this is all one person. Ethan Hawke is here to have as good of a time as he does on a Blumhouse set, rampaging through one of the meatiest bad guys in the MCU yet.
We'll be highlighting these two actors in our list of the best characters in "Moon Knight," of course, but with a tight cast list where nearly everyone explores multiple variations of their characters, we've got the easiest job of them all. Everyone involved in this project pulled out all the stops on their way to build one of the best psychological thrillers to ever invade the superhero universe. Now that the season has wrapped and we're ready to talk spoilers, let's give them all their due.
10. Ammit
For the bulk of "Moon Knight," Ammit is the unseen force driving Arthur Harrow's schemes. A version of the ancient Egyptian goddess of judgment, she's described by Steven, aptly, as a weird crocodile lady. The finale gives Ammit her big moment, revealing her in a puff of purple smoke. Regal and huge, Ammit's MCU design skips some of her mythic details, like feline arms, in favor of a sleek bipedal crocodile with great hair.
Her rumbling voice, provided by Jordanian actor Saba Mubarak, is equally regal. Even more terrifying, Ammit doesn't behave unreasonably. She's dedicated to her cause of sweeping judgment, so much so that she looks upon her imperfect vassal, Harrow, and presses him to further use even though it will break his own balance. Ammit is described as Khonshu's bleak parallel before she appears, but to see her in action is worse. It makes her kaiju throw down with Khonshu into something genuinely epic, as we witness the gods themselves standing astride our Earth in their struggle.
9. Donna
We've probably all worked with a Donna. Fussy and feisty and threading a narrow line between teasing and hateful, she's the exact sort of figure to stick around in the psyche of a guy like Steven. She's the avatar of everything that can go wrong in a day's work, not missing a single mistake nor a chance to call her peons out on it. Yet, it's not much catharsis to see her penned up as another of Marc's fellow patients, a memory trapped and warped inside of his mind.
English actor Lucy Thackeray makes Donna a remarkable figure despite her small role. She's just a small cog of Steven's daily life, a prickle he can't shake off. In another series, she'd just be a side character we forget about after a good chuckle. "Moon Knight," however, makes her as symbolic and necessary as its gods. She's a small god, the ruler of the museum gift shop. Steven has at least as many issues with her as Marc does with Khonshu, and by the end of the series, well ... Steven would probably handle her malicious teasing a little better now, if he hadn't been fired.
8. Osiris and Selim
Osiris and his mortal avatar, Selim, are a puzzle in "Moon Knight," at first. Though his leadership over the remaining gods of the Ennead isn't in doubt, his motives are. Selim, played by Khalid Abdalla, and his godly master are a brisk and businesslike pair, acting more as an arbiter of unclear rules and holding a bitter grudge against Khonshu. It's a far cry from his ancient roots, where Osiris is, simply and powerfully, the god of eternal life and rebirth.
Osiris is currently the wall against which all other gods fall. He's the one that goes straight towards threatening Khonshu with imprisonment as a stone ushabti, and he's been deploying that punishment against the gods for a long time. By the time the finale wraps up, all we know of Osiris is that his strict power has become his undoing. There was no secret plan with Harrow against Khonshu, as fans speculated. Instead, his arrogance undoes his dwindling court. With countless avatars fallen, Osiris, along with the rest of the remaining Ennead, has gone quiet for now.
7. Anton Mogart
Gaspard Ulliel infuses the small role of Anton Mogart — the artifact stealing and dealing Midnight Man — with a luscious verve. Feeling a bit like an exile from George R.R. Martin's country of Dorne (the same land that gave us lusty Pedro Pascal in "Game of Thrones"), Ulliel slithers through half of an episode and makes it his domain. His self-confidence oozes through the screen, the sort of guy we loathe but would also secretly read a whole romance novel about. Gaspard Uliel sadly died in an accident a few months before "Moon Knight" went to air, and that knowledge grants Mogart's short role a sense of extra injustice.
Ulliel was so good as this character that I hope Mogart is never recast. There was room for his version of Mogart to grow, to be a possible future antagonist or intriguing figure darting in and out of the broader MCU. But like a retired jersey, let's let Mogart rest. It's a tragic loss, but at least we got an opportunity to experience the story with him. There won't be anyone else quite like him.
6. Arthur Harrow
Superhero stories rise or fall with their villains, and Arthur Harrow is easily a Hall of Famer. A former avatar of Khonshu, Harrow knows how the old bird thinks and can react accordingly. The violent life of retribution broke Harrow long ago, and he found his solace in Ammit's ideals, the notion of a world stripped of the choice to do harm. To that end, Harrow will manipulate or murder anyone he needs to, fully prepared to accept a new world that won't have room for him.
Ethan Hawke is already having a hell of a year, with a small but powerful role in "The Northman," as well as "The Black Phone" on the horizon. The character of Harrow, meanwhile, gives Hawke plenty of space to chew up the room. No mere cult leader, Harrow believes in what he's peddling. The broken glass in his shoes proves his dedication; it's a suffering he privately inflicts on himself. However, it's when he appears in Marc's visions of an unearthly institute that Harrow ascends even further. Dorky and cloyingly empathetic, Harrow still manages to feel like a dangerous antagonist.
5. Taweret
Charging into our hearts with a perky "Hi!" and a shuffled set of papyrus notes, Taweret is our new dream girl. She's big, she's buff, she's protective, and she's got a Spice Girls voice. If we don't get that adorable museum plushie of her for merchandise, Disney's missing out on bushels of bucks. They figured out Alligator Loki pretty quickly, so I'm sure we'll be able to fly the colors of our new hippo queen soon enough.
Voiced by Antonia Salib, Taweret, with her adorable ear flicks, has a role in guiding spirits through the Duat. It's clear she's picking up Anubis' slack since he's been turned into an ushabti for some unknown reason. Tawaret is willing to go with the flow when Ammit nears release, and does her part to help Layla avoid Harrow's gaze when Layla escapes from the tomb of Alexander. The finale gives her new agency, as she gaily accepts a new avatar into her service. Temporarily, says Layla. But that new gold swag is going to be hard to give up.
4. Marc Spector
Marc isn't the first character we're introduced to in "Moon Knight," even though he's the primary personality behind Khonshu's avatar. Marc relegated himself to secondary, hiding behind Steven after another crushing emotional blow. When Marc's up front, though, he's tough and competent, a trained mercenary who's spent his entire adult life running away from his family. He's also honorable and knows when a job's gone sour, as he did the night he died under the statue of Khonshu and tried to change the outcome.
It's ironic that this powerhouse who's invested with the iconic superhero version of Moon Knight is also the softest in some big ways. Abused as a child, Marc developed a dissociative identity disorder, creating alters as a way to protect himself from awful truths. As an adult, truths are still hard for him, even when they destroy his personal relationships. Oscar Isaac always makes Marc instantly recognizable when he comes to the fore, and while he's our hero, he's still only one crucial part of our superhero protagonist. Free at the end of "Moon Knight," we're worried for him as we realize that Marc — and Steven — never figured out the existence of their violent third wheel, with a lasting bond to Khonshu.
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3. Layla El-Faouly
We love competent characters focused on their own story arcs. Layla has plenty of history with Marc before the series opens, but she's not here to talk about that much. Layla is here to seek answers of her own, not about what destroyed her marriage. She's so over it that she understands, implicitly, that Steven is his own lovable guy. What Layla wants is to find out what actually happened to her father.
It's not a jump to realize Marc's been holding back on what he knows, and it casts another shadow on his relationship with her. Marc's disorder aside, what he's done to Layla emotionally is some dark stuff. No wonder Khonshu wants her for his next Moon Knight; she's the other side of Marc's story. The tough yet lighthearted Layla, played by May Calamawy, is going to make her own choices, though. The finale sees her become Taweret's avatar instead. While Layla calls the deal temporary, the way a little Cairo girl's eyes light up when she meets an Egyptian superhero is going to make giving up the gig a tough choice. Keep it! I'm 100% up for a Taweret and Layla road trip spin-off.
2. Steven Grant
Steven may be an alter, a sometimes-corny identity created by Marc in his youth to shield some part of himself from a broken childhood, but he's a full-throated person in his own right as an adult. Oscar Isaac transforms instantly into this gentle, feckless, but good-souled identity with the same remarkable smoothness Christover Reeve showed in "Superman." Steven may seem like a pushover, but there's something firm inside of him, and he doesn't give in to Harrow's wheedling even when he's trapped on his enemy's turf.
Steven earns his own superhero identity as the figure comic fans know as Mr. Knight. Not as Bond-like as his counterpart, he's still stylish and cool, and he figures out how to fight with an elegance that never puts a drop of blood on his natty white suit. That core of goodness always remains. Marc is the primary, the boy that survived a day of tragedy, but he gave Steven their heart to watch over. Sorry, Taweret. Sweet Stevie is the best protector of the heart's balance that we could ever ask for.
1. Khonshu
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Marvel's Khonshu is a jerk. His comic book counterpart is nearly a villain: a manipulative, angry god who cares little for his avatars. F. Murray Abraham's voice builds something more out of this sassy, "Halloweentown" death pigeon. This Khonshu is as manipulative and cloying as his source material, but underneath is a lot of pitiful childishness. His tantrums are as funny as they are murderous, though a little poking makes us realize he's a lot more like his current avatar than he'd like to admit. There are many sides to Khonshu, even if he's not interested in any useful introspection.
Khonshu is a lonely old bird who keeps the memory of every night sky alive in his heart. He likes music enough that he keeps it a secret from Marc, along with his fondness for Hathor, the goddess who would sometimes sing to him. Without Khonshu, we wouldn't have a "Moon Knight" at all. For all of his flaws and his selfish machinations — and his final hour of outright bastardry when honoring his deal with Marc and Steven — Khonshu is the big-eyed and skeletal soul of the series. The finale's credit cookie sees Khonshu on top of the world, enjoying a limo ride in an elegant suit along with his new favorite Knight, the vicious Jake Lockley.