Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, has offered some insight into what audiences can expect from the upcoming Disney+ series, Moon Knight. One of Marvel’s lesser-known vigilantes, former Marine Marc Spector, AKA Moon Knight, struggles with dissociative identity disorder, and Feige assures fans that this exploration of mental health will play a big part in the Disney+ adaptation.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had an action hero who jumps out of buildings and gets into fights. The mental illness is a unique aspect of the program.”
Of course, the mental health aspect will be one part of the series, with Feige equally excited to harken back to the other, more familiar superhero tropes, with Moon Knight set to leap from tall buildings and get into countless fist fights all in the name of justice.
Moon Knight’s backstory is a rich, complicated one and tells an origin that is ripe for a serial adaptation. Before becoming a superhero, Marc Spector grew up in Chicago to a rabbi father and eventually became a heavyweight boxer before enlisting as a U.S. Marine. Following his military career, Spector becomes a mercenary, which leads to him taking on an assignment involving an archaeological dig in Egypt, where a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu has been uncovered.
As is so often the case with this kind of escapade, the situation goes awry, and Spector is left to die at the dig site in the freezing temperatures of the night. Before succumbing to the sweet release of death, Khonshu comes to him in a vision and tells him that if he becomes his embodiment on Earth, he will let him live. And so, Spector awakens and becomes Moon Knight.
Upon returning from Egypt with the powers of Moon Knight, Spector decides to become a crime-fighter, because who wouldn’t. Leaving his mercenary days behind by wisely investing the blood money he made, Spector uses his wealth to better fight crime. Spector’s dissociative identity disorder manifests itself in the form of three separate personalities, each with distinctive traits and identities; rich entrepreneur character Steven Grant, a taxi driver character Jake Lockley, who keeps in touch with the dealings of the street-level criminal underworld, and, of course, Moon Knight, his silver-cloaked crime-fighting vigilante character. Think of him as an even more intense Batman.
Though no casting has yet been announced, rumors continue to circulate claiming that Rise of Skywalker star Oscar Isaac will play the titular role. Other fans meanwhile believe that Moon Knight is the perfect opportunity for John Wick star Keanu Reeves to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Feige himself having previously declared his desire add Reeves to the MCU roster. “We talk to him for almost every film we make,” Feige confirmed recently. “I don’t know when, if, or ever he’ll join the MCU, but we very much want to figure out the right way to do it.”
Moon Knight does not yet have a release date, though filming is expected to begin in 2021. The series is just one of a whole host of original content set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe and due to debut on Disney+, including WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, What If…?, Ironheart, Secret Invasion, and Armor Wars. This comes to us courtesy of Emmy Magazine.