comic hero
Superhero with a disorder: Oscar Isaac shines as “Moon Knight”
Ethan Hawke as Arthur Harrow in a scene from the Marvel series “Moon Knight” (undated film scene). Photo: Marvel Studios/Disney+/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The character “Moon Knight” should only be known to comic fans so far. Now Marvel wants to bring out the unusual hero with the mental disorder in a new series on the Disney + streaming service.
In addition to the Marvel comics about famous superheroes like “Spider-Man”, “The Incredible Hulk” or “Captain America”, “Moon Knight” has been living in the shadows since the 1970s.
Before Oscar Isaac took on the title role in the new Disney+ streaming series, he too had no idea who or what Moon Knight was. “Zero! I didn’t know anything, »says Isaac in an interview with the German Press Agency and smiles. “Then I did a quick look and I was like, okay, a superhero who has dissociative identity disorder, who’s Jewish but enslaved by an Egyptian god! Yes, there is a lot in it.” The series starts this Wednesday.
Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) leads a low-key life in London. He works in the British Museum’s souvenir shop, where he is largely ignored by colleagues, and has little success with women. But Steven has a dark side that he needs to understand first. Again and again he is plagued by strange blackouts in which he loses control over himself, hears a strange voice and sometimes becomes violent. Before he goes to sleep, he chains himself to the bed.
Dissociative Identity Disorder
After a particularly odd experience, meeting the shady Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawk) and the startling revelation that he is married to Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy), Steve begins to come to terms with dissociative identity disorder Has. Because the Brit (Isaac in the original with a trained accent) shares a body with the American mercenary Marc Spector. And as the Moon Knight, he follows the orders of Kohnsu, the Egyptian god of the moon and revenge.
So far so crazy. The first installment of the six-part Marvel series is an adventurous and exciting tour de force. The creators succeed in balancing absurd humor and exciting, sometimes scary moments. The action scenes are on cinema level.
The comic series from Marvel about the hero in the white costume, who first appeared in the 1975 horror comic «Werewolf By Night», has changed radically again and again. “I saw an opportunity there,” says Isaac. Because in order to fill the series character with life, Marvel President Kevin Feige gave him a lot of creative freedom.
Jumps between characters
The 43-year-old, known among other things from the most recent “Star Wars” trilogy and the science fiction epic “Dune”, surpasses himself in a dual role. “The first few months I only shot as Steven, to live in this world and to settle in,” says the 43-year-old. “The longer we were there, the more I mastered this character, the better I could jump between the characters.”
Playing a person with dissociative identity disorder – in the past one spoke of multiple personalities – was a special challenge. “But that’s what I found so exciting about it,” says Isaac. A psychiatrist was hired as a consultant for the series. “Getting involved with this issue and someone it affects, on a stage as massive as a Marvel series, was a real opportunity for us to use this big comic book adaptation to talk about something real, that based on experience.”
It is not yet clear where Steven and Marc’s journey will lead and what role Layla and Arthur will play in it. It is quite possible that, as in previous Marvel series, other well-known Marvel characters will appear on the Disney+ streaming service, such as “WandaVision” or “Hawkeye”. It’s already safe to say that Oscar Isaac is a new star in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At first glance, «Moon Knight» is an original, exciting and entertaining series that could finally end the shadowy existence of its main character.