Marvel continues to throw good talent after good at its upcoming Moon Knight Disney+ series, with THR reporting that Ethan Hawke has signed on to play the main villain in the Oscar Isaac-starring superhero show. There’s no word yet on who, exactly, Hawke will be playing, but given that Moon Knight’s personal nemesis is his old pal Bushman—his employer who betrayed the future hero back during his mercenary days—that feels like a pretty safe bet. (That being said, Moon Knight also sometimes beefs with Dracula, so, hey, fingers crossed for that.)
Hawke joins a cast that includes, obviously, Isaac, and also the just-cast May Calamawy. His hiring is just the latest sign that Marvel is really, no fooling, willing to throw some serious money at a TV show about a character that even hardcore Marvel nerds might greet with a “Really? They’re doing a Moon Knight show?” Hawke himself, meanwhile, is fresh off his own latest TV gig, playing firebrand abolitionist John Brown in The Good Lord Bird.
Anyway! Moon Knight is now the show where Oscar Isaac tries to kill Ethan Hawke with a boomerang, and that’s the kind of sentence that gets our hearts racing regardless of how obscure the characters in question might end up being. (Or not! Seriously: Ethan Hawke Dracula. Once you start thinking about it, it gets really, amazingly difficult to stop.)
23 Comments
even hardcore Marvel nerds might greet with a “Really? They’re doing a Moon Knight show?” Or… “About time!”
Yeah lol, he might be a little more obscure than what they’ve pulled, but he is also a fairly interesting character that would work great on TV if done right.
This is not that surprising.
It’s not really the character that’s important, it’s how you do it. Iron Man was fairly B-tier before all of this. He was just done right ^^
Kind of unrelated to this news (though Hawke’s a great actor obviously), but WandaVision gave me a lot of hope they’ll nail the visual panache of Lemire’s and Ellis’ runs on the character. Smallwood, Bellaire and Shalvey did some amazing work there – Smallwood and Bellaire switched up styles between the various personalities of Spector and it came out great. And Shalvey, well, look at this stuff:
Shalvey’s art on that Ellis run is so fucking good. I hope they use the multiple costume gimmick, so we can get snappy suit Moon Knight:
Mr. Knight was a great incarnation. Kicking ass is one thing, doing it in a stylish suit is another. Though also it was neat how he has a persona for each aspect of fighting crime and whenever crime decides to adapt, MK can spawn another persona to match it.
“It’s just Mr Knight, now.”
Moon Knight is now the show where Oscar Isaac tries to kill Ethan Hawke with a boomerangExcuse me, a magic boomerang.
Excuse me, “random bullshit.”
It may not be Bergman or Bresson, but it pays those big bucks.
By the way, “Bushman” is his last name. He’s Raoul Bushman, not a guy who wears a bush costume or turns into a bush.
Frankly, I’m amazed it’s not both.
Considering how many comic book characters build personas based on their names (though the only actual example I can think of is The Riddler / E. Nygma, which was probably just built backwards; though I did just find Calendar Man / Julian Gregory Day, which is just hilariously brilliant) I am genuinely shocked that he’s not a bush-themed villain. I’m also shocked that there wasn’t a bush-themed villain Venture Brothers character.
I though maybe “The Gods Must Be Crazy” was part of the MCU.
The way I look at it, Marvel got us to care about a racoon who’s best friends with a tree. Having watched the batshit crazy Wanda/Vision today, I’m willing to give Marvel the benefit of every single doubt. Moon Knight? Great, bring it on! I think at this point they could make a Willie Lumpkin feature that could gross $700mil once theaters reopen.
I think that ship has sailed 🙁
They got the rights to Fantastic Four back, and that includes Willie. Yes, sadly, they’ll have to recast, or do CGI facial superimposition over someone else. Either way, I think I’d still go see it.
I thought Hawke hated superhero stuff? Maybe that’s just the films.
They told him it was a sequel to Before Midnight.
He said he wasnt sure if he wanted to do one due to the amount of promotion you had to do (specifically saying he didnt much like working when its not acting)He’s also said the fairly standard thing lots of arty movie people say which is that quite a few superhero are a bit overrated and maybe dont stack up against “great” films. Alas in the rather binary internet discourse movies are the best or the worst and thus if you suggest something isnt the best then you hate it. Granularity be damned 😉
I remember the criticism coming across as a bit weird because of all the genre films he’s done down the years (Assault on Precinct 13, Daybreakers etc.) which made me wonder why they were valid pieces of art whereas Logan wasn’t.The promotion aspect I can well understand.
He once wrote a tribute to Kris Kristofferson in Rolling Stone, and said (paraphrasing) “as someone who has done a lot of grade-Z sci-fi crap in my life, I can really appreciate the gravitas Kris brought to the Blade movies.” So it’s not so much that he hates these movies, he just considers them a paycheck to pay the bills in between Linklater movies.
Are we sure he’s not playing/voicing Khonshu?
Frenchie