Moon Knight on Disney Plus: release date, trailer, cast, plot and more

Moon Knight’s release on Disney Plus is just over a month away. And, unsurprisingly, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) can’t wait to see what its story will entail.

Why? Well, according to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, the Marvel Phase 4 TV show will be a “brutal” affair, and that the studio isn’t “pulling back” to rein the series’ more mature content. It sounds, then, that Moon Knight will do something that the Marvel movies (and other Disney Plus shows) haven’t done for a while: be truly experimental with its style, tone, aesthetic, and character exploration.

Feige’s quotes aren’t the only things that have set tongues wagging before Moon Knight launches next month. Thanks to a Super Bowl LVI TV spot, we’ve seen new footage that shows how different Moon Knight may be to what’s come before. We’ve also been given a proper look at Khonshu the moon god (and confirmation of who’s voicing the character), and why Oscar Isaac settled on that British accent for the lead role.

Below, you’ll also find even more information about Moon Knight on Disney Plus. We cover everything from its release date and its first trailer (check our trailer breakdown article for more, too), to its small but A-list cast and the character’s MCU future. Potential spoilers follow for Moon Knight, so turn back now if you don’t want to know anything about it pre-release.

Moon Knight release date

Moon Knight release date: March 30, 2022

Oscar Isaac stars as Moon Knight in the Disney Plus show. (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney Plus)

Moon Knight will launch on Disney Plus on Wednesday, March 30, meaning it follows Loki, What If…? and Hawkeye in being released midweek. According to Marvel leaker Brandon Matthews, however, Moon Knight won’t receive a two-episode premiere like Hawkeye did in November 2021.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told journalists at a WandaVision press day (via Collider) in January 2021 that Moon Knight will run for six episodes, too. That means that the series’ final episode will arrive on May 11 – five days after Doctor Strange 2 will exclusively launch in theaters.

Each episode is expected to last between 40 to 50 minutes, which has become the standard episodic runtime for MCU TV shows. Mohamed Diab (Cairo 678) is supposedly directing four of those entries, with directing partners Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (The Twilight Zone, Synchronic) handling the other two. 

However, a recent Cosmic Circus report suggests that George Clooney is directing one of Moon Knight’s episodes, although it’s unclear which entry he’s helmed if the rumors are true.

Moon Knight trailer

Moon Knight trailer: here’s the first official teaser

Moon Knight’s first trailer was released on January 17, and gave us our best look at the mysterious MCU TV show yet.

The video opens on Oscar Issac’s Steven Grant/Marc Spector, a former mercenary who has dissociative identity disorder (DID), a condition that means he has multiple personalities. Grant/Spector is struggling to sleep and says that he can’t tell the difference between real life and dreams.

Ordinarily, you’d expect his sleep issues to be a result of his DID condition. But, as the trailer progresses, and in true Marvel fashion, it’s clear that there’s something bigger at play here.

The rest of the Moon Knight trailer is, to be frank, a wild and surreal ride. We see Grant/Spector pursued by an individual that we believe to be Khonshu, the ancient Egyptian moon god who grants superhuman abilities to Grant/Spector in the comics (and likely Isaac’s live-action incarnation of the character).

We also find out that Ethan Hawke (Dead Poets Society, The Black Phone) is playing a cult leader-style villain called Arthur Harrow, we learn that Grant/Spector doesn’t realize that he’s a superpowered individual or that he has multiple identities, and we get a glimpse of just how strong Moon Knight is – the antihero pummelling what appears to be a werewolf or ancient Egyptian jackal in a museum’s public bathroom. 

A new TV spot debuted during the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, too, which revealed some new snippets of footage from the show. Intriguing new elements include a look at Arthur Harrow’s abilities, Moon Knight taking on a bunch of gun-toting soldiers, and one of Steven Grant’s many alter-egos.

Check that out below:

Moon Knight cast

Moon Knight cast: who is playing who?

Moon Knight will deliver plenty of beatings in his MCT TV show. (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney Plus)

Details are still pretty thin on the ground, so we only have some confirmed casting news to go on for now:

Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight/Marc Spector/Steven GrantEthan Hawke as Arthur HarrowF. Murray Abraham as KhonshuMay Calamawy as TBC

As if we needed proof that the MCU’s Disney Plus shows are just as big a deal as the movies, Marvel has lined up a genuine silver screen star as Moon Knight’s lead: Oscar Isaac, star of the latest Star Wars trilogy and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune. Isaac will play Moon Knight, as well as Grant, Spector and any other of the character’s multiple personas.

Thanks to the subtitles on the YouTube version of the trailer, we’ve also learned that Ethan Hawke is playing a character called Arthur Harrow. In the comics, Harrow is a bit-part villain who only appears in one issue – April 1985’s Moon Knight #2 – as a scientist who conducts experiments on human subjects to learn how to permanently eliminate people’s pain.

Here, though, Harrow has been reworked as something of a cult leader, with Hawke telling The Seth Meyers show (via The Hollywood Reporter): “I’ve based my character on David Koresh”, i.e. the leader of the Branch Davidian cult responsible for the Waco siege in 1993. It seems that Harrow wants to help people unlock their true potential, though we suspect there are nefarious means behinds his motives.

We also believe that Hawke’s character will actually be a combination of two comic book characters. Reddit users have proposed the theory that Hawke will portray an amalgamation of Harrow and a pyrokinetic supervillain called the Sun King, who has bipolar disorder. Marvel has a history for trying to throw viewers off the scent about who the real villain is in its movies and TV shows, so we wouldn’t be shocked if they’ve done likewise here.

Meanwhile, award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham (Homeland, Amadeus) is set to voice Khonshu, the Egyptian moon god who grants Isaac’s Spector superpowers. Confirmation of Abraham’s role comes via the third image in this DMED Disney gallery for Moon Knight.

Per the latest edition of Empire Magazine (thanks to Twitter user cbmasters for the screenshot), here’s a first proper look at Khonshu, too:

May Calamawy has been cast in an undisclosed role (per Deadline). She could be playing Isaac’s potential love interest in Marlene Alraune, but we think it’s more likely that she’s the voice of Layla, who Grant/Spector speaks to over the phone in the trailer.

ScreenRant previously reported that Gaspard Ulliel (Hannibal Rising) has joined the Moon Knight cast as villain Anton Mogart, aka Midnight Man, but this is currently unconfirmed. Ulliel’s projects page, on talent agency website Hamilton Hodell, had teased his involvement, but his portfolio has been altered since ScreenRant’s initial report. If Ulliel is part of the cast, it’ll be his final acting role, too, after the 37-year-old died in a skiing accident in mid-January 2022.

Moon Knight story

Moon Knight story: what’s it about?

Oscar Isaac as Marc Spector in the hotly anticipated Moon Knight TV show. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Here’s the official synopsis for Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight, as described on Marvel.com: “The series follows Steven Grant (Isaac), a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, who becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life. Steven discovers he has dissociative identity disorder (DID) 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. “

Meanwhile, Disney’s official summary (via Deadline) described Moon Knight as a “new globetrotting action-adventure series featuring a complex vigilante who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID). The multiple identities who live inside him find themselves thrust into a deadly war of the gods against the backdrop of modern and ancient Egypt.”

Neither of those provide much in the way of proper story context. Interestingly, however, a report from Disney Latino has provided some additional information about its plot. That article has been unpublished but, luckily, The Cosmic Circus grabbed some details before it was taken offline.

“Grant suffers from dissociative identity disorder, a psychological pathology he discovers after having flashes from another life,” The Cosmic Circus reports. “From there, the mercenary Marc Spector, a parallel identity in him, begins to manifest… Khonshu negotiates with Marc to become the bearer of his powers on Earth. Spector, who in those circumstances was already a former military officer, former CIA agent, and still worked as a mercenary, is abandoned by his companions during a mission and the Egyptian deity appears there to save his life.”

Away from the show’s story beats, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige has opened up on what we can expect from the latest MCU TV series. Speaking to Empire Magazine, Feige confirmed that Moon Knight would be the most “brutal” MCU offering so far, adding: “It’s been fun to work with Disney Plus and see the boundaries shifting on what we’re able to do. There are moments [in the series] when Moon Knight is wailing on another character, and it is loud and brutal, and the knee-jerk reaction is, ‘We’re gonna pull back on this, right?’ No. We’re not pulling back. There’s a tonal shift. This is a different thing. This is Moon Knight.”

In a separate Empire interview, Oscar Isaac also elaborated on the surreal British accent that he adopts for the character of Steven Grant. “It’s cool [the accent] got people excited, and some were like, ‘That sucks!’ and others were like, ‘That’s great!’ But there are reasons… That voice is about where Steven’s from, where he’s living now, and some of his believed heritage. It’s not an idea of what Brits actually sound like.”

Chatting to Jared Leto for a recent actor-on-actor Variety piece, Isaac also explained how the TV show format provided greater freedom to explore Grant’s multiple personalities and motives. “There was a lot of room to try stuff because there wasn’t the pressure that we got to make sure we make however many hundreds of millions of dollars on the opening weekend,” he said. “So we could make it very point-of-view. We could make very weird decisions. At the moment, at least — and I don’t imagine it’s going to go backwards — it feels like that’s where more of the risk is being taken because it can financially.”

As great as Moon Knight sounds and looks, some Disney Plus subscribers and general MCU fans may not know who the character actually is. So, to help you out, we’ve dug into Marvel’s comic archives to provide further context. We’re nice like that, dear reader.

Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, Moon Knight made his comic book debut in Werewolf by Night #32 in August 1975. He originally appeared as an antagonist to the story’s lycanthropic hero – hence all that werewolf-related moon and silver iconography – but eventually came to terms with the idea that the titular Jack Russell (yes, that’s the werewolf’s real name) was a victim rather than a villain.

Marvel didn’t take long to realize they had a star on their hands and – after several further guest appearances in the late ’70s that that emphasized Moon Knight’s heroic side –  gave him his own series. The first issue landed in November 1980 and has been ongoing ever since.

In the comics, Spector is a former US marine who becomes a conduit for Egyptian moon god Khonshu, giving him super-strength, speed and endurance that are influenced by the phases of the moon. He’s also a Batman-like vigilante, with a fortune, arsenal of specialist gadgets to match, and army training that make him a formidable long-range and hand-to-hand combatant.

Moon Knight leaps through the night sky in his TV series. (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney Plus)

What makes Moon Knight a particularly intriguing addition to the MCU, though, is the fact he has DID. The condition means that Marc Spector has many alter-egos – most notably taxicab driver Jake Lockley and billionaire businessman Steven Grant – that help him to move through a variety of social environments. For Moon Knight’s TV show, however, Grant has been reinvented as a lowly museum shop employee, while Lockley hasn’t been confirmed to appear just yet.

Circling back to the show’s synopsis provides several clues about what to expect from the show, too.

Firstly, Marc Spector’s DID is going to be an important component of Moon Knight’s live-action arc. In December 2020, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told Emmy magazine that “the mental health aspect is a unique aspect of the program”. So we’re hoping Marvel will explore the subject with the sensitivity that characterized WandaVision’s powerful exploration of grief and trauma.

Feige also pointed out that “it’s been a while since we’ve had an action hero who jumps out of buildings and gets into fights,” suggesting that we’ll be getting plenty of Batman-style action when Marvel’s own caped crusader decides to take the law into his own hands.

The “deadly war of the gods” line, meanwhile, could open the door to more ancient Egyptian gods appearing in Moon Knight. The trailer provided a fun little Easter egg that may hint at Sobek, god of the Nile River and patron god of the military, featuring in some capacity. We also see statues of Ra, Osiris and Anubis at one point, so any one of those could appear – especially the latter, what with the possibility that the creature Moon Knight fights in the trailer is a jackal.

Horror elements traditionally associated with Moon Knight could also bring his story into the supernatural orbit. Moon Knight’s directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead revealed some of the horror movie and TV show inspirations behind Moon Knight’s aesthetic.  “It’s stuff that’s kind of like what we already do,” Moorhead explained to The Playlist. “[Netflix supernatural horror] Archive 81 definitely shares DNA with [our previous films] The Endless and Resolution. You’ll see with same with Moon Knight.”

Moon Knight in the MCU

Moon Knight in the MCU: will he star in a Marvel movie?

Steven Grant isn’t the only personality that Moon Knight possesses. (Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney Plus)

We certainly believe so. With a major A-list star in Isaac on board, it’s only a matter of time (in our view) before Moon Knight makes the leap from his own Disney Plus show to an MCU movie.

What could be the perfect film to introduce Moon Knight in a Marvel flick? An appearance in the upcoming Mahershala Ali-starring Blade reboot would be the best bet, in our view. Don’t forget, we heard the Daywalker’s voice talking to Dane Whitman in Eternals’ end credits tease, so this could be the start of a recruitment drive for the Midnight Sons. 

This Avengers-like group deals with supernatural threats, and has boasted characters like Wong, Iron Fist, Punisher, Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange on its roster in the comics. Could they join forces in the MCU? We’d like to see it happen.

Moon Knight has also been a part of the Avengers and Heroes for Hire line-ups in the comics, too. Given that the world needs a new Avengers team, and Shang-Chi and She-Hulk’s MCU appearances possibly teasing a Heroes for Hire team-up, Moon Knight could be part of either in an ensemble superhero flick. Make it happen, Marvel.

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