How Oscar Isaac’s Acting Solved A Major Moon Knight Problem

Moon Knight directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead reveal how Oscar Isaac's brilliance made a major hurdle for the series completely disappear. The six-episode streaming series is not only the first MCU project of 2022, it's the first live-action Disney+ series to introduce a brand new lead hero to the Marvel franchise. The series, which premiered this morning and will run weekly through early May, stars Isaac, Ethan Hawke, May Calamawy, Lucy Thackeray, and the late Gaspard Ulliel.

Isaac has been given a grand acting challenge, portraying a character who experiences dissociative identity disorder. The two primary identities he plays throughout the series are Steven Grant, a shy British museum shop clerk, and Marc Spector, a hardnosed American mercenary. However, he will portray a whole coterie of other characters, including the nocturnal hero Moon Knight (when he channels the powers of Egyptian moon god Khonshu, voiced by F. Murray Abraham) and the detective Mr. Knight.

Screen Rant had the opportunity to sit down with Moon Knight directors Benson and Moorhead for an exclusive interview. The duo, who helmed episodes 2 and 4 of the series, discuss how Oscar Isaac's performance completely obliterated their worries. Moorhead says that they were initially concerned about how they were going to "tell the audience" which alter was in control, especially in situations where one not in the driver's seat would look through Isaac's eyes. However, the issue was completely taken out of their hands because of Isaac's incredible ability to "hold his face and his posture in a way that, as soon as you look at him, you know who he is." Read the full quote below:

Yes, that was the biggest surprise to us, too. Because we were worried as directors, "How are we going to tell the audience? Besides the accent, how are we going to know who is who?" Especially if it's just a look, because semi-often that does happen, that the alter that is inside is looking.

We realized on day one that we didn't need it. Oscar can hold his face and his posture in a way that, as soon as you look at him, you know who he is. And by the way, neither of those two are anything like the real Oscar Isaac, so he had three people going on. That was really interesting as well.

What an unbelievable blessing, both that we didn't need to work any harder as directors in order to figure out how to keep it clear for the audience - and in fact, we were able to just sit back and in many ways present it as if there were just two physical people standing looking at each other and figuring out their issues. It's a gift.

Steven seeing Marc in the miror reflection in in Moon Knight

Isaac has certainly had experience playing multiple types of character throughout his career, all along the spectrum of good and evil. He has run the gamut from his sinister character in Alex Garland's AI thriller Ex Machina and the operatic villain Apocalypse in X-Men: Apocalypse to the charismatic pilot Poe Dameron in Star Wars and the biblical figure Joseph in 2005's The Nativity Story. From these years of experience, he has been able to combine all of these skills into a single performance.

With another actor in the lead role, Moon Knight may have had much more work to do to get audiences to care about the character at the center of the series. This could have ruined the entire affair, considering that the show has decidedly moved in the direction of being a psychological thriller and character study. While Isaac has yet to show off every facet of the character he's playing, just in one episode released so far, he has proven what a valuable asset he is to the MCU.

Next: Moon Knight Cast Guide: Every Marvel Character & Who Plays Them