Marvel's Moon Knight Trailer Review

So the new Moon Knight trailer dropped yesterday, and as the next foray into the MCU, I thought I’d jot down some thoughts on the trailer and the potential for the series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgafWW5D5q0

Moon Knight stars Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector, who in the comics at least is a mercenary and former U.S. Marine with dissociative identity disorder. The show looks like it will explore his Egyptian origins with the Egyptian god Khonshu who after saving his life, tasks him with being his avatar on Earth. Created in 1975 by Doug Moench and Don Perlin, Moon Knight first appeared in Werewolf by Night #32 and was initially meant to be a villain.

Sometimes referred to as Marvel’s answer to Batman because of the vigilante aspect of the character, I think the comparison is unfair and somewhat reductive, with Moon Knight’s background and origin story much more interesting to my mind than Batman’s.

The Disney+ exclusive seems to be predominantly based in the UK with Isaacs’ Marc Spector sporting an English accent which is a departure from the comics where he was a former US Marine and ex-CIA operative before becoming a mercenary and eventual vigilante Moon Knight. Whether or not this is just one of his personalities remains to be seen as the phone call he receives from a woman calling him Marc in an American accent hints that he still has connections to the US, although if his ‘English’ personality (Stephen) is just a personality, how would she recognise his voice if it was a different accent to what she’s accustomed to?

Whilst we’re here.. What is going on with the English accents in this trailer? Particularly Oscar Isaac’s - I’m hoping that this is just one of his personalities, as listening to that voice through six episodes will be too grating.

Due to the Egyptian connection, there are definite undertones of the Mummy series, and I hope they lean into that because I’m all for Egyptian Gods and Demons running amok in modern day London if it’s done well (I’m looking at you The Mummy 2017).

From what we’ve seen in the trailer and screenshots online, the Moon Knight costume is also great in my opinion, it’s pretty comics accurate and looks less generic Marvel costume than most.

Moon Knight is historically one of Marvel's more violent antiheroes so it will be interesting to see how that translates to a Disney+ series with the trailer giving us hints of a darker, more brutal protagonist than any of the previous Disney+ Marvel offerings. One scene has him brutally beating (an albeit monster/demon) opponent – is this literal or a figment of his broken mind? We’ll have to wait for the series to find out.

Finally, we’re introduced to Ethan Hawke, presumed antagonist Arthur Harrow (thanks closed captions) who in the comic books was a minor villain, so it’ll be interesting to see how he is set up in the MCU.

Overall, as a fan of both Isaac and Hawke, I think this series has got a strong cast, tonally it looks great and a little darker than Marvel’s previous Disney+ offerings, which, in my opinion is no bad thing. If it delivers on Egyptian mythology, manages the mental health aspect of the characters dissociative identity disorder with a modern sensitivity and delivers on the action and raw brutality of the character’s history, come March, we could all be worshipping the Moon.