Origin stories are part and parcel of the superhero genre, especially when it comes to lesser-known characters that audiences haven’t met in live-action before. Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight definitely falls into that category, but the longtime fan favorite’s beginnings are hardly straightforward.
In the comic books, Marc Spector is the son of a rabbi who serves as a Marine, CIA agent, and mercenary, all while dealing with dissociative identity disorder. As one does, he ends up being granted superpowers by the Egyptian deity Khonshu, which turns him into a costumed vigilante tasked with protecting the innocent.
Even by comic book standards, it’s pretty wild stuff, but Isaac has teased in an interview with The Age that the upcoming Disney Plus miniseries isn’t going to stick to conventions, something we probably could have assumed for ourselves based on the atmospheric and eerie footage we’ve seen so far.
“It’s not going to be a traditional origin story that’s totally chronological in that way. You get introduced in medias res [that is, in the middle of the story] and for me, what was most important is that it’s point of view is the characters, so you, the audience, are in his skin, living this life. That mystery unfolds [for the audience] as it unfolds for him.”
The first wave of reactions to hit the internet have touted Moon Knight as unlike anything we’ve ever seen from the Marvel Cinematic Universe before, so it was only natural that the supernatural adventure applies the same approach to introducing and establishing the title hero.
