Marvel Studios held a Moon Knight press conference ahead of the Disney Plus series debut. With the cast gathered for the red carpet premiere, Oscar Isaac (Marc Spector), Ethan Hawke (Arthur Harrow), May Calamawy (Layla El-Faouly), and F. Murray Abraham (Khonshu) were on hand, as well as directors Mohamed Diab, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead. While there wasn’t a great deal of new information to be had, there were a few surprises from the all-star cast and crew.
For the first time in his career, Ethan Hawke signed on to the role of Arthur Harrow without reading the script. Isaac spoke to him first, and then Diab painted a picture of his character and the world of Moon Knight, asking him to sign on. Hawke agreed, and the rest is history with the character of Arthur Harrow so far shaping up to be one of the most intriguing and intense Marvel villains.
While the show does make some moderately significant changes from the source material to the Disney Plus series, one of the biggest changes is the location. In the comics, Moon Knight primarily operates out of New York. The series moved Marc Spector’s initial location to London instead. Isaac commented that the reason for this change was, at least in part, because too many Marvel characters are from New York.
Some of the most impressive acting in the series comes from Oscar Isaac as he portrays the dissociative identity disorder of the titular character. Isaac switched back and forth between the personalities with seamless ease. To help practice for the role, Isaac hired his brother to be, “the other me” so he could have a proper conversation between Marc Spector and Steven Grant.
Finally, while May Calamawy was a bit hesitant at first, she ended up having a lot of input for Layla El-Faouly. After hearing Ethan Hawke speak up, she also let her voice be heard in shaping her character. According to Calamawy, “I feel like I got to play the full gamut of a woman with her because she’s strong, she’s for the people, and she fights for what she believes, but she’s also really vulnerable and scared.
We’ll have full coverage of Moon Knight coming very soon. The first episode of the series will begin streaming on Disney Plus starting Wednesday, March 30.
Bryan Dawson has been writing professionally since the age of 13. He started his career as a video game writer and has since worked for Random House, Prima Games, DirecTV, IGN, AOL, the British Government, and various other organizations. For GNN, Bryan taps into his passion for movies.
