Oscar Isaac: ‘Moon Knight’ is a standalone story away from the MCU, that’s what attracted me

Marvel’s latest superhero series, Moon Knight, will feel disconnected from the rest of the MCU, but it’s this indie storytelling that appeals to its stars Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke.

Oscar Isaac told IGN that the separation of the show’s plot from the MCU was “absolutely” what drew him to the film. Oscar Isaac said that Moon Knight reminded him of his favorite Marvel movie:

“For me, my favorite Marvel movie is still the first ‘Iron Man’. You know, it’s a movie that feels like a breakthrough in a way, it has an indelible performance , every minute of the movie has him) on the screen. It’s messy but it feels mature because it’s the first one, and I really like it.”

“Moon Knight was a similar approach, where we built the story from the ground up. It’s still in the multiverse, but it’s not part of the plot, it’s not part of the story… It’s really an internal exploration of the character, So the character has no connection to any other reality that’s going on…”

Ethan Hawke, who also plays the mysterious new villain, agreed that a separate story was the “fuse” for his role in the film, and also revealed his favorite Marvel movie:

“I like…you know, when you see ‘Iron Man’ for the first time, or ‘Black Panther’ for the first time — when I don’t know the origin story, don’t know all the characters, but To be told a new saga is happening. When we first talked about the story, I was very happy because it gave us more freedom. As a viewer, that’s what I wanted and I didn’t want to already know it would be What happened … it gave more originality and it gave us an opportunity like that.”

Not only will Moon Knight be disconnected from the MCU, but the film will also have a very different character from the comics version.

Most notably, it transformed protagonist Steven Grant from British billionaire to suave gift shop employee.

Oscar Isaac said the changes went their own way to suit a comic book character who has undergone several major changes over the past few decades.

Oscar Isaac said: “I did research the comics in depth, but the problem is when you look at the comics – you know, it’s been around since 1975 – and it changes dramatically from time to time. Characters like this , every time there’s a new writer, they shift the lens to something they’re interested in: they add a whole new backstory, they add a different power, they take away certain powers, they give him a new Costumes. I think he’s more versatile than a lot of the characters I’ve seen.”

“And there’s no consistent villain,” Ethan Hawke chimes in, “so we’re free to play — as writers do with comics, and we can choose what we like: these are too violent, these are not violent enough.”

It’s not just the job of the Moon Knight writers, it’s also the job of the actors, who are trying to create a whole new version of the character, not just an adaptation of the manga.

Oscar Isaac continued: “Jeremy Slater and his writing team, they kind of cracked the structure of the whole story.”

“They said, well, we know we want to coexist with Steven Grant, that’s how we’re going, we’re not going to make him a billionaire dude, not a Bruce Wayne clone, we’re actually going to disrupt it.”

“The actors) inherited that, and then, for us, it’s the same process. Now that we find the most interesting and engaging thing, let’s focus on that.”

Related Post: Marvel’s “Moon Knight” released a new special “What Makes Moon Knight Featurette”.