Moon Knight: Ethan Hawke calls his villain a “sane lunatic”

Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight will be a different hero from what we typically expect from Marvel. The six-episode limited-series stars Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector, an ex-soldier with a case of dissociative identity disorder that manifests as distinct individuals who becomes the conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Ethan Hawke plays the main villain, Arthur Harrow, a religious zealot and cult leader associated with the god Ammit who see Moon Knight as an obstacle to him “healing the world” and who encourages Marc Spector to embrace his inner darkness.

As Moon Knight deals with a mentally ill hero, Ethan Hawke told /Film didn’t want to go down the road of using “mental illness as a building block for the villain” and instead crafted Harrow as a “sane lunatic.“

The histories of movies are paved with storytellers using mental illness as a building block for the villain. There’s countless mentally ill villains, and we have a mentally ill hero, and that’s fascinating because we’ve now inverted the whole process. Now, as the antagonist, I can’t be crazy because the hero is crazy. So I have to find a sane lunatic, or a sane malevolent force.

The first reactions to Moon Knight have begun pouring out. Our own Alex Maidy has seen the first four episodes of the series and called them “fantastic, dark, violent, and very funny.” Maidy praised Oscar Isaac’s stellar work and added that Ethan Hawke is terrifying. Stay tuned for a full review right here on JoBlo.com

The official synopsis for Moon Knight:

The series follows 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.

Moon Knight will debut on Disney+ on March 30th.