After months of waiting, Marvel fans got a long look at the newest Disney Plus offering when the streaming service dropped the trailer for Moon Knight. The hardcore MCU fanbase is already dissecting every second of the nearly two-minute-long trailer for hidden and not so hidden info, but just a cursory view has fans of Marvel’s moonlight spirit of vengeance asking a major question:
Why is Oscar Isaac’s voice…British?
According to the synopsis available at Marvel.com, Moon Knight tells the story of “Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, who becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life. Steven discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.”
All well and good. Except for the fact that none of the several identities Moon Knight associates with – or disassociates with- is English. Steven Grant, in particular, has always been American in the comics. Comic-version Grant is also a pretty far cry from a “mild-mannered gift-shop employee.” In the comics, Grant was a multi-millionaire (occasionally billionaire) and archetypal “playboy crime fighter” who parlayed his alter ego Marc Spector’s mercenary earnings into a sizable fortune and allowed for Moon Knight to afford, among other things, a mansion and several helicopters.
Although anything can happen in the six episodes scheduled to stream this season, it’s fairly certain to say that the version of Steven we’re seeing in the majority of the trailer isn’t exactly a debonair and fabulously wealthy man about town. And he appears to be English. As for that, there are a few working theories.
Moon Knight, aka Marc Spector, aka Steven Grant, aka Jake Lockley, suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID, often mistakenly referred to as “split-personality” or schizophrenia. So while Spector or Moon Knight may not actually be British, his Grant identity could take on a manner of speaking that sounds British and, indeed, believe himself to be British. The trailer certainly reveals that at a certain point, “Steven Grant” is unaware of the existence of Marc Spector, Moon Knight’s first identity.
There’s no telling if the production team is using the accent to lift Moon Knight’s action away from New York – where the comics version of the hero traditionally operates – to the more exotic climes of England and Europe, or if it serves as a device to delineate his identities better. Some online fans definitely believe this to be the case.
Whatever the case, the details of the trailer have given Moon Knight fans plenty to chew on for the next two months leading up to the series’ Disney Plus debut at the end of March. Any question they have will have to wait until then unless a future trailer drops anymore hint about the series or whether or not we’ll see MK’s other major identity, cab driver Jake Lockley in the future.
Moon Knight premieres exclusively on Disney+ on March 30.
