There have always been two sides to Ethan Hawke as an actor, with the 50 year-old showcasing a habit for alternating between hard-hitting prestige dramas and B-tier genre films.
Sometimes we get the four-time Academy Award nominated star from Training Day, Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, Boyhood and First Reformed, while on other occasions we see the grizzled hero from the Assault on Precinct 13 remake, Daybreakers, The Purge or 24 Hours to Live.
Boarding the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Moon Knight could be the ideal opportunity for the star to balance both sides of his onscreen persona, allowing him to play a meaty role within a heightened and fantastical setting. We still don’t know who Hawke has been cast as outside of the fact he’s the villain. But he showed up for a recent talk show appearance sporting straggly gray hair and a beard.
When host Seth Meyers compared his unkempt appearance to that of cult leader David Koresh, who went down in infamy due to the 1993 Waco siege, Hawke admitted that’s exactly what he was going for.
“I’ve based my character on David Koresh! I guess it’s working. You’re good, Seth. You’re good. Or maybe I’m not out of character yet… I will say that he is the basis for great character inspiration, however.”
While those more well-versed in the comic book lore might be able to piece together more information based on nothing but how he looks, it’s certainly not the Ethan Hawke we’ve been used to seeing on our screens over the last 30 years. He’s a fantastic talent with the right material, and looking at the quality of the MCU’s Disney Plus offerings so far, the scenes he’s set to share with Oscar Isaac’s title hero promise to be riddled with gravitas and intensity when Moon Knight comes to streaming next year, and at least by then the character will have long since been confirmed.
