Marvel Eyes Oscar Isaac For 'Moon Knight' Disney+ Series

As his role in the Star Wars saga has pretty much reached its end, Oscar Isaac is in talks to join the equally huge franchise, the MCU as the insane superhero, Moon Knight. According to Deadline, Marvel is in negotiations with the actor to lead the Disney+ series that was announced late last year. Writer and showrunner of Netflix’s “Umbrella Academy,” Jeremy Slater, has been tapped to lead the writing and development of Moon Knight as well. While Isaac’s role hasn’t been confirmed, Deadline doesn’t usually report on unverified rumors.

Some comic history on the mentally unstable vigilante: Moon Knight was created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin and first appeared in Marvel’s “Werewolf By Night” (#32, 1975). He was originally a foe for the titular Werewolf but popularity led him to headline his own series and appearing in many other character’s comics.

Before he became Moon Knight, Marc Spectre was an American mercenary and former CIA agent. During a mission in the deserts of Egypt, Spectre was betrayed by a fellow mercenary and left to die at the foot of an ancient statue of the moon god, Khonshu. As a last-ditch effort, he begged for his life and to his surprise, Khonshu answered. In exchange for his life, Marc Spectre would be indebted to the god and become, ‘The Fist of Khonshu,’ aka Moon Knight; a warrior with enhanced strength and agility.

Upon returning to the United States, Spectre invested his fortunes from mercenary work to fund his newfound crime-fighting role. To cover his tracks, he created a new identity called Steven Grant that would serve as a wealthy alter ego, not unlike Bruce Wayne. For this reason as well as Moon Knight’s costume and weapon design, he has been unfairly called Marvel’s version of Batman.

However, Steven Grant, the millionaire didn’t have a way to keep his pulse on the criminal activity and so he created a third identity: Jake Lockley. Lockley is a cab driver that prowls the nighttime streets of New York City where he interacts with the lower levels of society like the homeless man, Crowley; a longtime confidant of Lockley’s.

With these multiple personalities aka dissociative identity disorder plus the possible voice of an ancient Egyptian god all rattling around inside his head, later writers like Jeff Lemire have explored Moon Knight’s sanity and whether or not he is delusional. Thematically, this has the potential to be one of the darkest and deepest of Marvel's live-action adaptations so fingers crossed Slater and team have the passion and respect for the character.

The news of Isaac taking up the role comes just a few weeks after the announcement of Iman Vellani playing ‘Ms. Marvel.’ While Marvel was cognizant of culturally appropriate casting for ‘Ms. Marvel,’ it seems to be less of a factor for Moon Knight. In the comics, he is the son of a Rabbi and of Jewish heritage which led to many fan-casting Shia LaBeouf as a potentially crazy, smaller statured superhero. Or if they wanted to avoid some backlash for a white American taking the image of an Egyptian god, albeit fictional, they could have cast someone of Egyptian descent like Rami Malek or Oliver Jackson-Cohen.

More details likely coming soon. No official release date has been announced.