Ethan Hawke says he based his Moon Knight villain on an infamous cult leader. The Marvel character Moon Knight is just the latest from the comic book house’s infinitely deep stable of heroes and villains to receive a live-action adaptation.
In comic book lore Moon Knight is a former Marine and CIA agent who becomes a superhero after being rescued from a near-death state by the Egyptian god Khonshu and invested with superhuman powers. Oscar Isaac takes on the character for the upcoming Disney+ show created by The Umbrella Academy executive producer Jeremy Slater and co-starring Hawke. Though Hawke’s involvement in the series was revealed back in January, it’s still not known what actual character he’s playing, but speculation has centered on several Marvel villains, including the aforementioned Khonshu, The Sun King, Mephisto, Bushman, Werewolf By Night and Dracula.
Though he came up short of revealing the identity of his character, Hawke did give fans a hint about who he might be playing in Moon Knight during a recent appearance on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Hawke talked about the inspirations behind his performance and revealed that he based his character on cult leader David Koresh. He said (via ComicBook.com):
“I’ve based my character on David Koresh. Yeah, so I mean, I guess it’s working. I totally wanted a Camaro, you know? I want to ride in on a Camaro. I can’t believe you, I mean, you’re good Seth. Or maybe I’m not out of character yet… I don’t know if we want to be on record saying that. But, I will say, he is the basis of great character inspiration however.”
The real-life Koresh infamously led a break-away sect of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church called the Branch Davidians and met a horrific end along with over 70 of his followers when federal agents stormed the sect’s compound in Waco in an incident that remains controversial to this day. Needless to say, Hawke is drawing on some very dark things if he’s looking to a figure like Koresh for inspiration.
Of course it’s expected that Hawke plays a dark character in Moon Knight given the nature of the source material, but which one? If Hawke’s Koresh revelation is indeed a bread crumb leading toward the answer, The Sun King might just be direction in which to head. The Sun King is definitely a dark character, with his backstory as an abused child who ended up in Ravencroft Institute where he was introduced to Egyptian mythology, leading to his believing himself to literally be a manifestation of the god Amon Ra. Were one to play a character who believed himself to be a god, Koresh might be exactly the kind of real life figure one might look to for inspiration. Taking the whole “cult leader” angle a little more literally might lead one toward an actual cult in the Marvel universe like the Cult of Khonshu, one of whose members is none other than Shadow Knight, the evil brother of Moon Knight.
It’s of course been speculated for awhile now that Hawke might actually be playing Khonshu, the god responsible for giving Moon Knight his powers. However, given recent white washing controversies, the prospect of Hawke playing an Egyptian god seems unlikely. The mystery around the identity of Hawke’s character in Moon Knight indeed remains intact for the time being, but no doubt the cult leader angle will lead to much more interesting guesswork from fans in the coming weeks – unless Marvel decides to just outright reveal the character.
Source: Late Night With Seth Meyers (via ComicBook.com)